He told reporters of his plan on board Air Force One
Donald Trump has urged Jordan and Egypt to take in approximately 1.9 million Palestinians as part of his plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza.
The war between Israel and Hamas has been raging for 15 months, with millions of civilians caught up in the conflict.
Less than a week after his inauguration, the US President floated the idea, saying he would urge the leaders of the two Arab nations to accommodate the population of the besieged enclave.
The Republican added that resettling could be ‘temporary’ – or ‘long term’ – echoing past calls from some members of Israel’s far-right government to expel Palestinians altogether.
Though Israel’s offensive has currently been paused by a fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas, which led to the return of Israel hostages, Gaza is what Donald trump referred to as ‘literally a demolition site’.
He said: “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.”
Speaking with reporters on board Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said he had a call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and was also going to speak with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi today.
However, Middle East experts repelled the idea saying his plans to ‘clean out’ an ethnic group and expel them from their land equates to ethnic cleansing.
British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan said: “A week ago I was being told to apologise for saying Trump would be worse for Gaza because he faked a temporary pause/pretend ceasefire to coincide with his inauguration.
“Now he is just openly endorsing/encouraging ethnic cleansing.”
H.A. Hellyer, senior fellow at Center for American Progress in Washington, said such a move would be considered a second ‘Nakba’ – the exodus to neighbouring countries of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded.
He told the FT: “It would outrage Arabs because the historical record is very clear; every time Palestinians have been forced to leave part of Palestine, they never went back.
“Emptying Gaza of its inhabitants would not have any support from the Arabs, or even internationally, because it is the definition of ethnic cleansing.”
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad condemned the president’s suggestion and accused the head of State of encouraging ‘war crimes’.
There was no immediate comment from Egypt, Jordan, or from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is likely to welcome the proposal.
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Israeli officials have long advocated what they describe as the voluntary migration of Palestinians and the establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Millions of Palestinian refugees are living in camps in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and a few other countries in the Middle East.
However, Egypt has warned it will not take in any more Palestinian refugees while according to the UN, Jordan is home to more than 2.3 million registered Palestinian refugees.
It is unclear how serious Trump is about expelling Palestinians or how far he is prepared to go. US tariffs, one of his favourite economic tools, or outright sanctions could force the hands of Jordan and Egypt.
The latter is already in the midst of an economic crisis and receives billions of dollars in American aid each year.
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