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Trump's Plan to Empty Gaza 02/12 06:43
Behind U.S. President Donald Trump's vows to turn Gaza into a "Riviera of
the Middle East" lies a plan to forcibly drive a population from its land,
rights groups say, warning it could be a war crime under international law.
CAIRO (AP) -- Behind U.S. President Donald Trump's vows to turn Gaza into a
"Riviera of the Middle East" lies a plan to forcibly drive a population from
its land, rights groups say, warning it could be a war crime under
international law.
Trump doubled down this week on his vows to empty Gaza permanently of its
more than 2 million Palestinians, saying they would not be allowed to return
and suggesting at one point he might force Egypt and Jordan to take them in by
threatening to cut off U.S. aid.
Whether it's serious, a negotiating tactic or a distraction, Palestinians
have roundly rejected the idea of leaving. Some say Trump's talk normalizes
their erasure and dehumanization, amplifying the idea that they have no
connection to their land or right to their homes.
"He is talking as if the Palestinians are cattle, you can move them from one
place to another. They have no agency, they have no say," said Munir Nuseibah,
a professor of international law at Jerusalem's Al-Quds University.
The plan
Trump has billed the plan as being for the Palestinians' own benefit after
Israel's 16-month campaign demolished entire neighborhoods and left much of
Gaza unlivable. In its place, Trump has promised them a "beautiful new land"
elsewhere.
The United States would then take over the territory and rebuild it as a
"Riviera" for the "world's people."
Palestinians have made clear they don't want to leave Gaza, one part of
their homeland that remains for them, along with pockets of the West Bank,
after the Mideast's 1948 and 1967 wars. Despite Gaza's devastation,
Palestinians have shown a determination to stay and rebuild with international
help promised in the U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Israel.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in many ways is rooted in the 1948 war
surrounding Israel's creation -- during which hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians were expelled from or forced to flee their homes in what is now
Israel -- and the 1967 war, when Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem
and Gaza. Palestinians want those territories for a future state.
The ambiguity
Trump has left it ambiguous how Palestinians would be removed or what would
happen if they refused to go.
Asked by reporters at the White House on Monday if the U.S. would force
Palestinians out, Trump replied: "You're going to see that they're all going to
want to leave."
At one point, he said a rebuilt Gaza would be a place for anyone -- possibly
including Palestinians -- to live, and administration officials have said
Palestinians' removal would be temporary.
But Trump contradicted that in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired
Monday. Asked whether Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, he
replied: "No, they wouldn't because they're going to have much better housing.
In other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them."
In a post Thursday on his Truth Social site, Trump said Israel would turn
over Gaza to the U.S. "at the conclusion of fighting." By that time, he wrote,
all the Palestinians "would have already been resettled in far safer and more
beautiful communities."
Resettled how? Trump hasn't said.
Fighting in Gaza has been paused a ceasefire. There are fears Israel could
renew its campaign to destroy Hamas if the two sides can't reach an agreement
over a second phase of the deal, including the big question of how Gaza will be
governed.
The ceasefire is already precarious after Hamas accused Israel of violating
the truce and said it would pause releases of hostages. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu then threatened to withdraw from the deal if the militant
group does not release more hostages on Saturday.
Forced displacement?
With Palestinians refusing to go, Trump's ambiguity raises fears they would
be forced to.
Calls for a mass transfer of Palestinians were once relegated to the fringes
of political discourse in Israel.
But the idea has gained traction in the mainstream -- the result of
frustration from years of failed peace efforts, recurring rounds of violence,
and the painful images of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that triggered the
current war. Israeli leaders have talked of "voluntary" migration.
The Geneva Conventions forbid "mass forcible transfers" from occupied lands
"regardless of their motive." The International Criminal Court -- where the U.S
and Israel are not members -- also holds that "forcible transfer" can be a war
crime or, in some circumstances, a crime against humanity.
Forcible transfer was among the crimes that Nazi leaders were charged with
in the Nuremberg trials after World War II. It was also among the acts for
which some Bosnian Serb leaders were convicted by a U.N. tribunal over
atrocities during the 1990s Balkan wars.
Adam Coogle, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East & North
Africa Division, said he didn't know if Trump's statements would turn into
policy, "but the statement of intent is very concerning."
"The moving out of the entire Palestinian population, any movement of a
people in occupied territory out of that territory, is forced displacement," he
said. If done with intent, he said, it could be a war crime.
Amnesty International echoed that, saying forcibly expelling Palestinians is
a war crime and could be a crime against humanity.
Nuseibah pointed to rulings by the U.N. court for the former Yugoslavia and
other international bodies saying that "any type of pressure or duress" to
leave constitutes forcible transfer.
"It doesn't have to be at gunpoint," he said.
Asked by a reporter Tuesday about criticism that moving Palestinians out of
Gaza could be "ethnic cleansing," Trump did not directly answer, repeating that
they would go to "a beautiful location, where they will have new homes and can
live safely."
The White House pointed to those comments when asked specifically about the
potential that the permanent relocation of Palestinians is a war crime.
The response
Many Palestinians have been staggered that Trump takes it on himself to
speak on their behalf.
"Why don't they just ask us what we want?" said Nuseibah. "It is
dehumanizing."
Raji Sourani, a leading rights lawyer from Gaza, said Trump's stance was
"Kafkaesque."
"This is the first time ever in history that the president of the United
States speaks publicly and frankly to commit one of the most serious crimes,"
said Sourani, who left Gaza for Egypt after Israeli airstrikes destroyed his
home in the early days of the war.
Sourani accused Trump of aiming to "complete the genocide" he said was begun
by Israel.
The International Court of Justice is considering arguments that Israel's
campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide. Israel denies the accusation, saying it
is acting in self-defense to destroy Hamas.
As proof of their commitment to stay, Palestinians point to the flood of
hundreds of thousands of people returning to homes in Gaza under the ceasefire
-- even to ones that were destroyed.
On Monday, Hatem Mohammed set up a tarp to shelter his family from a cold
rain on the ruins of their destroyed home. Their home lies in the so-called
Netzarim corridor, a strip of land where troops leveled large areas to create a
closed military zone during the war, before their withdrawal over the weekend.
"This is our land, this is our identity and that of our fathers and
grandfathers," Mohammed said. "Trump wants to deny our identity. No, our
identity remains."
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