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Trump says Palestinians will not have right to return to Gaza under his plan

By Stephen Price
An eight year old refugee from the central region of the Gaza Strip. Along with his family, he was forced from his homes when the war started in Gaza and has been displaced four times since then. Image: Save the Children

President Donald Trump has said Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for US “ownership” of the war-torn territory.

Mr Trump’s comments contradict other officials in his administration who have sought to argue he was only calling for the temporary relocation of Gaza’s population.

Less than a week after he floated his plan for the US to take control of Gaza and turn it in to “the Riviera of the Middle East”, Mr Trump, in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that was set to air on Monday, said “No, they wouldn’t” when asked if Palestinians in Gaza would have a right to return to the territory.

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Pressure

It comes as he has ramped up pressure on Arab states, especially US allies Jordan and Egypt, to take in Palestinians from Gaza, who claim the territory as part of a future homeland.

“We’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is,” Mr Trump said. “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”

Arab nations have sharply criticised Mr Trump’s proposal, and his latest words were released a day before he is set to host Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday.

In addition to concerns about jeopardising the long-held goals of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Egypt and Jordan have privately raised security concerns about welcoming large numbers of additional refugees into their countries even temporarily.

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"Temporary"

After Mr Trump’s initial comments last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and secretary of state Marco Rubio respectfully insisted that Mr Trump only wanted Palestinians relocated from Gaza “temporarily” and for an “interim” period to allow for debris removal and reconstruction.

Mr Trump last week did not rule out deploying US troops to help secure the territory but at the same time insisted no US funds would go to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, raising fundamental questions about the nature of his plan.

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5 comments

John Ellis

If, as seems to be the case, no neighbouring nations whatsoever are prepared to take in and assimilate 1.8 million Gazan residents, just how could this work? Even Trump isn't absolutely omnipotent, even though he appears to think that he is.

Reply
Ned

That doesn't solve it. All you've changed is who designed and built the buildings in that region. You and Trump might think a nice neighborhood will result in well behaved citizens but the same fundamental sense of injustice will remain. Even if a new Hamas can't get past the vetting and US security in the region they'll just base themselves out of other countries. They don't have to be in Gaza to cause another 70 years of trouble. It's not enough to give them back a shinier version of Gaza. What's needed is a massive improvement in the Palestinian offer. We're talking about redrawing the region again, with land from Gaza, Israel and Egypt to create a New Palestine that stretches from the Med to the Red Sea. Without diminishing Israel, this only ends when the diaspora can come together and rebuild a new nation in that region that's every bit as impressive as Israel. This is the property deal Trump needs to deliver if he wants his Nobel.

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John Ellis

And since Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have already made it absolutely clear that they won't acquiesce to the solution which you propose, how do you conceive that to be a feasible proposal? None of those states, as they've already stated explicitly, are prepared to accept an influx of 1.8 million Gazans into their territory, given that they've no notion as to how many of them might turn out to be fanatic supporters of Hamas, a terrorist organization which originally sprang out of the 'Muslim Brotherhood' which none of those governments is willing, even temporarily, to to accept into their countries? The original 'lunacy' was the Balfour Declaration, rooted in an essentially 19th century fundamentalist Protestant Christian superstition that 'God has given the Jews the land'; even though they'd lost sovereignty over it way back 586 BCE. Fortunately that dull superstition is virtually extinct in modern Europe these days, though it still sadly exists among the more brain-dead elements of US society. I don't know - given the impact of the 'sho'ah' which is perhaps the greatest lasting legacy of the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jewish race - what the solution to the tragedy of Israel/Palestine might be, but Trump's idiot imperial solution surely isn't it.

Reply
Jeff

Orange oaf is now threatening to remove aid from Jordan and Egypt unless they take the people.

Reply
Charles Coombes

Please stop pushing Trump's agenda. Please start opposing his view and presenting reasoned arguments against him.

Reply

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