Displaced Palestinians walk on a road in central Gaza to return to their homes in the Northern Gaza Strip, following the Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal.
AP NEWS | Published February 7, 2025
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plan to seek U.S. ownership of the Gaza Strip and move out its population infuriated the Arab world. It stunned American allies and other global powers and even flummoxed members of Trump’s own party. The reaction in Israel was starkly different.
The idea of removing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza — once relegated to the fringes of political discourse in the country — has found fertile ground in an Israeli public traumatized by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and grasping for ways to feel secure again after the deadliest assault in their country’s history.
Jewish Israeli politicians across the spectrum either embraced the idea wholeheartedly or expressed openness to it. Newspaper columns praised its audacity and TV commentators debated how the idea could practically be set in motion. The country’s defense minister ordered the military to plan for its eventual implementation.
Whether or not the plan becomes reality — it is saddled with obstacles, not to mention moral, legal and practical implications — its mere pronouncement by the world’s most powerful leader has sparked enthusiasm about an idea once considered to be beyond the pale in the Israeli mainstream.
“The fact that it has been laid on the table,” said Israeli historian Tom Segev, “opens the door for such a clear crime to become legitimate.
To be sure, many of those who expressed openness to the plan said it seemed unfeasible for a multitude of legal and logistical reasons. And they say the departures should be voluntary, perhaps an acknowledgment of claims by critics, among them the U.N. secretary-general, that forced expulsions could amount to “ethnic cleansing.”
And many others, including liberal Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel, voiced opposition to it. The liberal daily Haaretz, in an editorial Thursday, urged Israelis to “oppose transfer.”
“Even if Trump disregards international law, it’s crucial to remind Israelis that the forced expulsion or transfer of civilians violates international humanitarian law, constitutes a war crime and amounts to a crime against humanity,” the editorial said.
In a joint Washington news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump said he envisioned the U.S. taking control of the Gaza Strip, having its people relocate to other places and rebuilding the war-battered coastal enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The proposal sparked outrage in the Middle East, including in Egypt and Jordan, two close U.S. allies at peace with Israel that Trump has suggested take in the Palestinians.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, called Trump’s plan “remarkable” and the “first good idea” that he had heard.
“The actual idea of allowing first Gazans who want to leave, to leave. I mean, what’s wrong with that?” Netanyahu told Fox News. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz took it a step further, asking the military to craft a plan for a potential exodus. Katz has given few details on how such a plan would work.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.apnews.com
RELATED: We are determined to stay here: Gaza residents on Trump’s displacement plan
Palestinians carry their belongings as they walk on a debris-strewn street in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, following a Hamas surprise attack, at Beach refugee camp, in Gaza City, October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
BUSINESS STANDARD | Published February 7, 2025
Storm adds to the hardships
“Is he nuts?” he said of Trump. “We will not sell our land for you, real estate developer. We are hungry, homeless, and desperate but we are not collaborators. If he wants to help, let him come and rebuild for us here.”
Controversy over displacement plan
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.business-standard.com
