A recent Israeli military plan that legal has been described as “genocidal.” It aims at the permanent forced displacement of northern Gaza`s population, as Jewish settlers plan for post-war colonization of that remaining corner of Palestinian territory. Although falling in line with Israel’s raison d’état and established military doctrine, the proposal by a group of senior Israeli army reservists, the “Generals` Plan,” also known as the “Eiland Plan,” seeks to expel the entire population of northern Gaza, and then besiege the area, while blocking the entry of humanitarian supplies, in order to starve out anyone left.

Echoing this “solution,” US President Donald Trump has suggested that Jordan and Egypt take in Palestinians from Gaza to facilitate the Zionist generals’ scheme. Trump even intimated to the press on Air Force One that he made this very suggestion to Jordan’s King Abdullah.

While population transfer has been considered a serious crime against humanity and war crime since the Nazi’s carried it out in 20th-century Europe, both the chorus of genocidal generals and the US head of state overlook the more logical and legal option of reducing the population density of the Gaza Strip by facilitating the return of Gaza’s 70% refugee population to their rightful homes inside historic Palestine whence they were ethnically cleansed 80 years ago.

During the British-backed Zionist militias’ conquest of Palestine in 1948, known as al-Nakba (the catastrophe), about 27% of the 770780,000 Palestinians who were forcibly expelled from their then homes sought refuge in Gaza, tripling the territory’s population overnight. Most were peasant farmers who thought they would soon return to their land and livelihood, as was their UN-affirmed right. Until now, Israel has forced them to remain in the truncated territory as a virtual concentration camp.

However, in 201820, many Gazan refugees demonstrated their willingness to vacate the Strip in their Great March of Return. Instead, Israel missed another opportunity to implement the people’s willingness to relocate, instead responding with rubber bullets, gas bombs, lethal drones and sniper fire that killed 214 Palestinians, including 46 children, and wounded over 36,100, afflicting nearly 8,800 children.

Now, the last 15 months of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and pogroms across the West Bank have reopened the subject of Israel’s sordid history to a far wider audience. With Trump’s ignorance of this—or any other—history, his is putting his foot in it once again, identifying with the criminal elements that make up his key constituency and certain legacy.

Trump says ‘clean out that whole thing’ as part of his plan for Gaza

The US president suggests that Jordan and Egypt should take in more Palestinians from Gaza

US President Donald Trump has proposed a plan to “just clean out” Gaza and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from the territory, ​​where Israel`s onslaught has displaced over 90 percent of the population.

Trump called Gaza a “demolition site” and said he had spoken to Jordan`s King Abdullah II about moving Palestinians out of the territory.

“I`d like Egypt to take people. And I`d like Jordan to take people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that he planned to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday.

“You`re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said of Gaza, whose population is about 2.4 million, adding that “something has to happen.”

The overwhelming majority of Gaza`s population has been displaced by Israel’s 15-month war, which has devastated much of Gaza and killed over 47,000 people.

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Throughout the war, Israeli politicians have on several occasions called for the transfer of Palestinians to Egypt, in what rights organisations have condemned as support for “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.

Former far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir supported Trump’s suggestion on Sunday in a post on X.

“One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration. When the president of the world’s greatest superpower, Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth the Israeli government implementing it – promoting emigration now,” he wrote.

Israeli political analyst Meron Rapoport said that the idea of “voluntary emigration” enjoys support across various circles of Israel`s political class, but noted that the issue is “not in Israel’s hands.”

The analyst added that, for the plan to work, Palestinians would have to agree to leave their homeland and, more importantly, Egypt and Jordan would need to be willing to take in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

“Israel would love to make the Palestinians disappear from Gaza, that is obvious. But do you think that the Palestinians will agree to move? Do you think Jordan or Egypt will agree to receive them? I don’t think so,” Rapoport told Middle East Eye.

A fragile ceasefire agreement has been in place since 19 January, and on Saturday, Israel and Hamas completed their second captives-prisoners exchange. Hamas released four Israeli female soldiers in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners.

On Sunday, Israel blocked over 600,000 Palestinians from returning home to a vastly destroyed northern Gaza.

“I`d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump said, adding that moving Gaza`s residents could be “temporary or could be long term.”

Rapoport said it is unlikely that Israel will try to force Egypt and Jordan to accept Palestinians into their territories if it endangered the peace agreements it has with both countries.

“These peace agreements are strategically more important to Israel than the `thinning` of the population of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

`Dealing with the issue as real estate`

Leading Palestinian rights activist Ameer Makhoul said Trump`s proposal is part of an American project geared towards “reconstruction and political demographic engineering without camps and an effort to dismantle the ties of the Palestinian people.”

“When it comes to the Palestinian case, there is no temporary population transfer but rather permanent displacement, as has been the case since 1948 with the refugees and 1967 with the displaced,” Makhoul told MEE.

“These peace agreements are strategically more important to Israel than the `thinning` of the population of the Gaza Strip”

—Meron Rapaport, analyst

“Trump`s talk about the location of the Gaza Strip reveals his intentions to deal with the issue as real estate, as well as an attempt to control the strip and the economic resources, particularly the natural gas in the Gaza sea.”

Egypt has previously warned against any “forced displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza into the country, with Sisi saying that such a move could put the 1979 peace treaty with Israel at risk.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday said Jordan`s rejection of any displacement of Palestinians is “firm and unwavering.”

Jordan is already home to around 2.3 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations.

“Egypt and Jordan will not accept Trump`s proposal because it is a politically unacceptable position and poses a threat to the national security of each of them,” Makhoul said.

Trump`s incoming administration has pledged “unwavering support” for Israel but has not yet outlined a broader Middle East strategy.

On Saturday, the US president confirmed that he had directed the Pentagon to approve the delivery of 2,000lb (907kg) bombs to Israel, a shipment previously halted by former President Joe Biden.

“We released them today, and they`ll have them. They paid for them, and they`ve been waiting for them for a long time. They`ve been in storage,” Trump told reporters.

A single 2,000lb bomb is capable of penetrating dense concrete and metal, causing extensive destruction across a large area.

Original article

Photo on front page: Israeli tear gas raining down on demonstrators in Gaza’s Great March of Return, 2018. Image on this page: Graphic indicating the original villages of Gaza`s majority refugee population. Source: Visualizing Palestine.

Themes
• Armed / ethnic conflict
• Destruction of habitat
• Displaced
• Dispossession
• ESC rights
• Indigenous peoples
• International
• Landless
• National
• People under occupation
• Population transfers
• Public policies
• Refugees
• Stateless