The new U.S. administration seems oblivious to Palestinian history, writes Ramzy Baroud.
Protest in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the Trump White House. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC)
Let’s be clear: The forced displacement of Palestinians is not a new idea.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to take “long-term ownership” of Gaza, to “clean out” the “mess,” and to turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East” is just the latest iteration of efforts aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homeland.
What makes Trump’s comments dangerous is not the immediate threat of U.S. military intervention in Gaza followed by the expulsion of its 2.2 million residents. The real danger lies elsewhere.
First, Israel may interpret Trump’s words as a green light to push Palestinians out of Gaza or the West Bank.
Second, the U.S. could tacitly endorse another Israeli offensive under the guise of fulfilling the president’s wishes.
Third, Trump’s remarks suggest his foreign policy on Palestine will remain largely unchanged from his predecessor’s.
Trump’s so-called “humanitarian” ethnic cleansing proposal will similarly go down in history as another failed attempt, particularly as Arab and international solidarity with the steadfast Palestinian people is stronger than it has been in years.
Some Democrats have seized this moment to criticize Arab and Palestinian Americans who voted for Trump or abstained from supporting Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the last elections. However, the idea of ethnic cleansing was already being floated during the Biden administration.
Biden’s Unconditional Support
While then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that “Palestinian civilians… must not be pressed to leave Gaza,” former President Joe Biden created the conditions for displacement through unconditional military support for Israel. This allowed one of the most devastating wars in modern Middle Eastern history to unfold.
Just days into the war, on Oct. 13, 2023, Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned Blinken in Amman against any Israeli attempt to “forcibly displace Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or cause their internal displacement.”
The latter displacement became a reality as most of northern Gaza’s population was crammed into overcrowded refugee encampments in central and southern Gaza, where conditions have been and remain inhumane for over 16 months.
At the same time, another displacement campaign is underway in the West Bank, particularly in its northern regions, accelerating in recent weeks. Thousands of Palestinian families have already been displaced in the Jenin governorate and other areas.
Despite this, the Biden administration did little to pressure Israel to stop.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Biden in the Oval Office on July 25, 2024. (C-span still)
Arab concerns over Palestinian expulsion were real from the war’s outset. Almost every Arab leader raised the alarm, often repeatedly.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi addressed the issue multiple times, warning of Israeli efforts — and possibly U.S. involvement — in a “population transfer” scheme.
“What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to seek refuge and migrate to Egypt,” Sisi stated, insisting that such an outcome “should not be accepted.”
Fifteen months later, under Trump, Sisi repeated his rejection, vowing that Egypt would not participate in this “act of injustice.”
The Saudi statement was issued almost immediately after Trump doubled down on the idea during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 4. The Saudi Foreign Ministry went further than rejecting Trump’s “ownership” of Gaza but articulated a political discourse that summarized Riyadh’s, in fact, the Arab League’s, position on Palestine.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm and unwavering,” the statement said, adding that the kingdom
“also reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation, or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land.”
The new U.S. administration, however, seems oblivious to Palestinian history. Given the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948, no Arab government — let alone the Palestinian leadership — would support another Israeli-U.S. effort to ethnically cleanse millions into neighboring states.
History of Ethnic Cleansing
Palestinian refugees flee to Jordan, crossing the destroyed Allenby Bridge, 1967. (The UNRWA Film and Photo Archive, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Beyond the immorality of expelling an Indigenous population, history has shown that such actions destabilize the region for generations. The 1948 Nakba, which saw the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, ignited the Arab-Israeli conflict, whose repercussions continue today.
History also teaches us that the Nakba was not an isolated event. Israel has repeatedly attempted ethnic cleansing, including its intense attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza in the early 1950s, and ever since.
The 1967 war, known as the Naksa or “Setback,” led to the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, both internally and externally. In the years that followed, various U.S.-Israeli initiatives throughout the 1970s sought to relocate the Palestinian population to the Sinai desert. However, these efforts failed due to the steadfastness and collective resistance of the people of Gaza.
Trump’s so-called “humanitarian” ethnic cleansing proposal will similarly go down in history as another failed attempt, particularly as Arab and international solidarity with the steadfast Palestinian people is stronger than it has been in years.
The key question now is whether Arabs and other supporters of Palestine worldwide will go beyond merely rejecting such sinister proposals and take the initiative to push for the restoration of the Palestinian homeland. This requires a justice-based international campaign, rooted in international law and driven by the aspirations of the Palestinian people themselves.
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books including: These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (2019), My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (2010) and The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle(2006). Dr. Baroud is a non-resident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.
This article is from Common Dreams.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Mr. Baroud and his opinions are not to be ignored. A serious student of Islam. Due to the subject at hand I will duly note what he has to say.
The people Trump is used to dealing with are not o be confused with some very serious followers of Islam. These people are driven dedicated and focused.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are not to be confused with Afghanistan or Iraq. The U.S. finds itself in no position to expect serious favorable treatment by many foreign countries with the likes of Musk and Trump running amuck in D.C. and the state and city of New York.
The Palestinians have gotten little more that lip service from the U.S.A. who supplied Israelis with weaponry to engage in genocide against them.
The Saudi Wahhabis know this. This will not continue for much longer as the U.S. continues to fade as major wrold power. Trusting America is becoming more and more dangerous. Did I mention Wahhabism is the most prominent religion in Saudi Arabi?
The pressure will be great by all opponents of the Genocide to not allow parasitic devouring and desecration of Sacred Land.
If Trump thinks he has a realistic chance of pulling this off we all are in for a rough four years. This alone is a major problem for him or whom ever he sells this idea to.
The Israelis can leave to make space for the Palestinians to return to their homeland, Palestine, and of course in many cases, to their selfsame homes that have been occupied by Israelis.
The latter are basically squatters.
Burn down the forests that cover Palestinian villages.
This option—Israelis should be transferred, not Pals—is being heard more and more often. There are plenty of places for them to go: Russia, the USA, the UK, Germany, Poland, South Africa, South America, and of course Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, etc. They even have relatives in many of those places.
Whereas the Pals have no place to be transferred to except to be deposited in some desert.
It is really a no-brainer.
Trump is doing to Palestine what he has undoubtedly done to Americans and Europeans before.
Trump declares a real estate project. Usually with artist’s renditions of what it might look like, or a model made by architects on the table for all the reporters to ooh and ahh over. Trump never gives a damn about the people who already live there. Trump just assumes that they ‘will move’ or ‘will be relocated’. Trump knows that if push really comes to shove, that he can order in the police and even the national guard to ‘restore order’ to move those dang people out of the way for Trump’s real estate project. These people are invisible to Trump.
Trump has done this before. This is what every real estate developer does for a living. Trump is used to pushing around Americans to make money for himself in this fashion. Trump is used to Americans never resisting this. Americans just pack their belongings into their shopping cart and head off to the homeless shelter to make room for the oligarch’s next profit making project as shown in the artist’s renditions. Frequently suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and thus spouting the oligarch’s reasons for needing to demolish their home.
The question is, will Trump be out of his league as he moves up to a higher class of opponent in the Palestinians?