The US president had suggested that one to 1.5 million Palestinians should be moved to Egypt and Jordan to “clean out” the narrow strip into which over 2.5 million people are squeezed.
But, those images of elderly men, women and children carrying what few belongings they have managed to hold onto after over 15 months of displacement by genocide as they trekked in the rubble showed just how much Palestinians are attached to their homeland.
They had already spent two days stranded in the cold when implementing the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel was delayed before it was finally concluded on 19 January.
Claiming that Hamas violated the fragile deal by delaying the release of a female hostage, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not order the occupation army to remove the fortifications it built in an area known as the Netzarim Corridor in the middle of Gaza or allow the long-awaited return of displaced Palestinians to their homes in the north.
Aware that the Israeli premier and his extremist ministers were looking for any excuse to resume the vicious war, with their daily mass murder of Palestinians, better to keep their ruling coalition intact, Hamas not only agreed to release the hostages in dispute but also to free two additional hostages today, Thursday, as well as three others on Saturday, 1 February.
Emptying northern Gaza, close to the border with Israel, of its residents to rebuild illegal settlements has been a key Israeli target since the war began on 8 October 2023.
The flood of displaced Palestinians returning to their largely demolished homes the minute the new agreement came into effect at 7:00am on Monday meant the end of those colonial ambitions, confirming that the resilient Palestinian people will never leave their land under any conditions.
Had any of Trump’s advisers conveyed to the US president an accurate picture of developments on the ground or the eagerness of Palestinians to return to their homes even if they had turned into demolition sites, he might have reconsidered making such ludicrous statements on Saturday.
Trump loyalists have argued that those statements were only initial, uncooked thoughts and did not reflect official US policy. However, what Trump said must be taken very seriously considering his first term’s track record, between 2017 and 2021, as well as statements he and his son-in-law Jarred Kushner repeatedly made on their vision of the Arab-Israeli conflict and how it might be solved by striking lucrative deals similar to those with which they manage their real estate business in New York and elsewhere.
On his first day in office, while signing dozens of executive orders at the White House, Trump had already lamented plans to make use of Gaza’s “beautiful beach coast” and “extremely nice weather” to create new realities in the absence of the original inhabitants. Yet his statements on Saturday were the bluntest affirmation of a return to his first administration’s failed proposals of “peace for prosperity,” linked to the Abraham Accords.
Trump said he spoke to Jordan’s King Abdullah and planned to speak to President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi about moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries. “I said to [King Abdullah] that I’d love you to take on more, because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess.”
He added, “you’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”
Reflecting his failure to consider or comprehend the complexities of the nearly century-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which remains mainly over the ownership of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, Trump said, “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.” The US president, a property developer, said the potential housing “could be temporary” or “could be long term.”
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a swift statement following Trump’s bizarre proposal, reaffirming Cairo’s principled stand against any short- or long-term arrangements that would lead to the displacement of Palestinians or the practical liquidation of the entire Palestinian cause. Cairo also reaffirmed its unwavering support for the resilience of the Palestinian people and their commitment to their inalienable rights under international and humanitarian law.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry underscored its categorical rejection of any actions that undermine those rights, including settlement expansion, annexation of land, or the displacement of Palestinians — whether through temporary or permanent means.
The Foreign Ministry added that such measures would threaten regional stability, risk further escalation of the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence. The statement stressed that Egypt calls on the international community to take concrete steps towards implementing the two-state solution.
The two-state solution requires the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on its entire national territory, ensuring the unity of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as outlined in international resolutions and the borders of 4 June 1967.
Hardly a few weeks after the beginning of Israel’s revenge war on Gaza 15 months ago, President Al-Sisi spared no words to affirm that Egypt would never allow a second Nakba or Catastrophe similar to that of 1948 to take place. He also warned that pressuring Egypt to accept the displacement of Palestinians living in Gaza would lead to a similar scenario in Jordan with Palestinians in the West Bank.
“The displacement or expulsion of Palestinians from the Strip into Egypt simply means that a similar situation will also take place — namely the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan,” Al-Sisi said in November 2023, adding there would be no point in discussing a Palestinian state, as “the land will be there, but the people won’t.”
Before any other party, the Palestinians themselves were the first to learn the lessons of Israel’s colonial, racist occupation, which started in 1948.
After the defeat of the Arab armies in the 1967 War and the occupation of the entire West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Sinai and Syria’s Golan Heights, no Palestinians fled to neighbouring countries as they had done in 1948, but they insisted on holding onto every inch that remained of their historic land.
Jordan was equally firm in rejecting Trump’s statements. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stressed that his country was committed to “ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land”.
He added, “Our refusal of displacement is a steadfast position that will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians, and Palestine is for Palestinians.”
Besides breaking with decades of US foreign policy, dating back to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference and the 1993 Oslo Accords signed between Palestine and Israel, which have long emphasised a two-state solution, what is worrying about Trump’s recent statements is that they even violated the terms of the recent ceasefire agreement which his newly appointed Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was personally involved in negotiating in Doha and Cairo.
The three-stage ceasefire agreement not only called for a permanent end to hostilities in the second stage but also outlined the details of the reconstruction of Gaza in the third stage in an effort that is likely to take years, considering the devastation Israel’s relentless war on the Palestinians has caused.
Trump’s statements will only encourage right-wing extremist members of Netanyahu’s government, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to increase pressure to resume the war, knowing that the US president now backs their long-standing ambition to empty Gaza of its residents.
It can’t be a coincidence that Smotrich had made the same proposal as Trump only a few months ago, saying Gaza’s population needed to be reduced by half if Israel was to maintain its long-term security.
Many Arab countries welcomed Trump’s statements that he was planning to end wars all over the world and become a peacemaker, which he made before taking office. The mere suggestion of displacing Palestinians and moving them to Egypt and Jordan can only be a prescription for endless war and insecurity in the region; however, it is utterly rejected not just by all Arab governments but also by the Arab peoples who have long supported the Palestinian cause.
Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, now have a clear obligation to convey to Trump that if he wants them to help restore peace in the region, serving US as well as world interests, the first step will be to carry out in full the terms of the recent ceasefire agreement.
This should be immediately followed by restoring peace negotiations on a permanent settlement for the Palestinian cause based on creating an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Seeking to carry out long-standing Zionist ambitions to empty Palestine of its people is only a call for more conflict, moving away from the stability and peace that, along with all peace-loving countries in the world, Egypt has long struggled to bring about.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 30 January, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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