When US President Donald Trump began speaking 10 days ago of Gaza as a demolition site, calling to “clean out that whole thing”, it wasn’t clear how far these were off-the-cuff remarks.
But in the lead-up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit, in his Oval Office comments before the meeting, and in the press conference itself, it’s now clear he is profoundly serious about his proposals.
They amount to the most radical upending in the established US position on Israel and the Palestinians in the recent history of the conflict; and will be seen as flying in the face of international law.
As well as how the announcement will be absorbed by ordinary people on the ground, it could also have a significant impact on the more immediate phased ceasefire and hostage release process, at a critical juncture.
Trump and his officials are framing his call to – in his language – permanently “resettle” all Palestinians out of Gaza as a humanitarian gesture, saying there is no alternative for them because Gaza is a “demolition site”.
Under international law, attempts to forcibly transfer populations are strictly prohibited, and Palestinians as well as Arab nations will see this as nothing short of a clear proposal aimed at their expulsion and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land.
That’s why Arab leaders have already categorically rejected his ideas, made with increasing frequency over the last 10 days when he suggested Egypt and Jordan could “take” Palestinians from Gaza.
In a statement on Saturday, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League said that such a move could “threaten the region’s stability, risk expanding the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence among its peoples”.
It has long been a desire of the ultranationalist far right in Israel to expel Palestinians from the occupied territories and expand Jewish settlements in their place.
Since the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel, these groups – leaders of whom have been part of Netanyahu’s coalition – have demanded the war against Hamas continues indefinitely, vowing ultimately to re-establish Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
They have continued their calls and opposed the current ceasefire and hostage release deal.
In his White House press conference with the Israeli prime minister, Trump went further even than his recent growing calls for the Palestinians in Gaza to be “relocated” to Egypt and Jordan, saying that the United States would then take the territory over and rebuild it.
When asked whether Palestinians would be allowed back, he said “the world’s people” would live there, saying it would be an “international, unbelievable place”, before adding “also Palestinians”.
His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff earlier in the day summed up much of the tone around the proposal, saying of Trump “this guy knows real estate”.
Trump said it would be the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Asked whether American troops would be involved in the take over of Gaza, Mr Trump said “we’ll do what is necessary”.
His proposals amount to the most radical transformation in the US position on the territory since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the war of 1967, which saw the start of Israel’s military occupation of land including the Gaza Strip.
Gaza was already home to Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in the wars surrounding Israel’s creation.
They and their descendants make up the vast majority of Gaza’s population to this day.
Trump’s proposals, if enacted, would involve that population, now more than two million people, being forced elsewhere in the Arab world or even beyond, says Trump, to “resettle… permanently “.
The proposals would wipe out the possibility of a future two-state solution in any conventional sense and will be categorically rejected by Palestinians and the Arab world as an expulsion plan.
Much of Netanyahu’s political base and the ultra-nationalist settler movement in Israel will champion President Trump’s words, seeing them as the fulfilment of a means as Netanyahu puts it to stop “Gaza being a threat to Israel”.
For ordinary Palestinians, it would amount to a mass act of collective punishment.
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