Commentary: Trump's Gaza plan echoes decades-old Israeli calls to expel Palestianians

Mustafa Barghouti, Los Angeles Times on Feb 8, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, was received warmly by President Donald Trump at the White House.

Netanyahu, a longtime backer of Trump, beamed with satisfaction as the two men met with reporters and Trump declared that Palestinians, driven from their homes by Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, should be “resettled” in third countries. This declaration is effectively an endorsement of calls from the Israeli right (including senior government officials) to expel Palestinians that go back decades and have accelerated since Oct. 7, 2023. Trump even said that the U.S. would “take over” Gaza.

The president’s remarks should not be taken lightly. They’re just the latest in a series he’s made recently about moving Palestinians out of Gaza, chillingly speaking of the need to “clean out” the territory and asking the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and even Indonesia to take them in. If implemented, such a plan would result in massive upheaval and even more bloodshed and destabilization in the region, and it would involve American troops occupying and colonizing Palestinian land in violation of international law.

If anyone doubts the seriousness of Trump’s statements. have no doubt that Netanyahu could consider them a green light to finish what is at the least the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, whether it’s carried out by Israeli or American soldiers. Indeed, on Thursday, the Israeli military was ordered to prepare plans for the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians out of Gaza.

Trump was careful to couch his plan in humanitarian terms, as do Israeli officials when they speak of expelling Palestinians, employing euphemisms like voluntary departure or voluntary migration, but make no mistake: It would involve the forced displacement of some 2 million people. Forced displacement and resettlement are war crimes, even when done under the pretext of humanitarian intent.

Meanwhile, on the ground in Gaza, Israel’s military has continued to kill and injure Palestinians since the cease-fire came into effect last month, and according to an Israeli media report, Netanyahu wants Trump’s support for the “eradication” of Hamas. On Sunday, Israel failed to meet a deadline to send a negotiating team to discuss Phase 2 of the ceasefire. Netanyahu appears to view the cease-fire as merely a tactical pause and has little or no intention of making it permanent.

At the heart of Trump’s Middle East policy is a delusion that was shared by President Joe Biden and fueled by Netanyahu: Israel can get the benefits of peace while still occupying and dispossessing Palestinians. In reality, Netanyahu’s fantasies of integrating Israel into the Middle East by normalizing its relations with regional governments such as Saudi Arabia are nothing more than a mirage born of arrogance and ignorance.

Even if Trump were to broker a deal between the two countries, it wouldn’t mean Israel was truly accepted by its neighbors and ordinary people in the region. Efforts by Trump and Biden to integrate Israel into the Middle East under the Abraham Accords without addressing Israel’s oppression of Palestinians have been followed by the deadliest period in recent history in Palestine/Israel.

Any illusion of peace created by the cease-fire in Gaza or the Abraham Accords is just that: an illusion. The underlying cause of the violence in the region — 77 years of unrelenting Israeli oppression and dispossession of Palestinians — remains. Unless or until it is addressed, there will never be genuine or lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

We as Palestinians, especially the people of Gaza, have suffered too much and endured horrors that no people should endure. But it must be clear to the Israelis, Americans and the whole world that we will never surrender to injustice, and we will never stop struggling for our freedom.

Trump’s and Netanyahu’s plans for Gaza and the Palestinian people must be categorically rejected by the international community and all people of conscience.

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Mustafa Barghouti is leader and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative headquartered in the West Bank.