EN
FR
By Rasha Jalal,
The Jewish People Policy Institute Israel Index survey found that 8 out of 10 Jewish Israelis agreed with Trump’s proposal of expelling Palestinians from Gaza.
US President Donald Trump has sparked widespread controversy with his recent statements about controlling the Gaza Strip and displacing its population (2.3 million people) to neighbouring Arab countries, in what may be the most extreme proposal so far in his second term.
Trump proposed in a press conference held on February 4, 2025 at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States take “long-term ownership” of the Strip, with its redevelopment and transformation into a tourist area, saying that the people of Gaza live in “hell” and that they should be transferred to other places to live a better life as he alleged.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, rejected Trump’s statements.
Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Hamas movement, told The New Arab: “Trump’s statements are absurd and ridiculous and reflect his ignorance of the nature of the conflict in Palestine.”
He added: “If Trump thinks he can implement his foolish plan, he must first confront the resistance of our people, which has not been broken despite the Israeli massacres and the blockade.”
He added: “Our Palestinian people and the resistance factions will remain a major obstacle to any project targeting our national rights, and no one will be able to uproot us from our land or impose solutions that target our existence.”
For his part, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas expressed categorical rejection of calls to seize the Gaza Strip and displace Palestinians outside their homeland.
Abbas stressed that “the Palestinian people will not give up their land, rights and holy sites, and that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine.”
Jordan and Egypt also rejected this idea, stressing their adherence to their positions rejecting the settlement of Palestinians outside their lands.
Major countries criticized Trump’s plan, as countries such as Russia, China, Germany, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom confirmed that they continue to support the two-state solution that has been the basis of Washington’s policy in the region for decades, which stipulated that Gaza would be part of the future Palestinian state that includes the occupied West Bank.
Popular disdain
“Gaza, in Trump’s eyes, is a resort overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, with large gas reserves just a few kilometers away,” Mohammed al-Saidi, 32, told TNA with a sarcastic smile as he worked to remove the rubble from his destroyed home. “Trump wants to clean Gaza, meaning to wipe out its population and build his own real estate empire.”
Al-Saidi downplayed the seriousness of Trump’s statements, saying, “It is ridiculous to give these stupid statements all this attention.”
Salma Rashid, a university lecturer in Gaza City who lost her husband during the Israeli war on the Strip, told TNA, “Trump appears to us as if he came from outer space. He is confused in his policy regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
She explained: “Sometimes we think that Trump looks at us with humanity when he says he supports a ceasefire, and other times we see him supporting the Israeli genocide of our people. Frankly, I do not know what Trump wants.”
Naji al-Madhoun, a university student from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, commented on Trump’s statements, saying: “Does this crazy man believe that we are eternal nomads?”
He said that Trump’s plan, which seeks to displace Palestinians to Arab countries, must stem from his belief that there is no people called the Palestinian people in this land.
He added: “It seems similar to what Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said in the 1970s (There is no Palestinian people. It’s not as if we came to throw them off the streets and take over their country. They don’t exist. There was a land without a people for a people without a land).”
Blowing up the ceasefire talks
While Doha is preparing to oversee a second phase of the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel, Trump’s statements represent a detonator for this agreement, as Talal Okal, a writer for the local Al-Ayyam newspaper, said in an interview with TNA.
Awkal added that Trump himself “stated two days ago that there were no ‘guarantees’ for the continuation of the ceasefire agreement. He knew very well the bomb he was about to drop and the potential shockwave of his proposals.”
Awkal said that Trump’s statements regarding the Gaza Strip once again reveal the nature of his talkative and controversial personality, which has always exceeded the usual diplomatic boundaries in American politics.”
He added: “Trump, who thinks he can impose a new reality in Gaza, does not realize that implementing his plan requires more than just fiery statements or incitement to displace the Palestinians. The Palestinian people, who have stood firm in the face of the occupation for decades, will not submit to such ideas, and Trump will not be able to achieve his vision unless he resorts to using the nuclear bomb to end the Palestinian presence in the Strip.”
The Palestinians have had an internationally recognized right to statehood since the partition of the territories when the British Mandate ended in 1947, and Gaza is part of that state, as are the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Okal points out that Trump has a history of flouting international laws and resolutions, especially when he recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli, even though it is occupied Syrian territory.
Blowing up international resolutions
He added that these statements reflect disregard for human values and the rights of peoples to self-determination, and contradict United Nations resolutions that affirm the right of Palestinians to remain on their land and reject any form of forced displacement.Abd el-Ati believed that “any attempt to turn Gaza into an investment project or impose American guardianship over it ignores the historical and legal rights of the Palestinian people and contradicts the principle of national sovereignty.”
Your Tax Free Donations Are Appreciated and Help Fund our Volunteer Website
Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm.
