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On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump’s call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza — widely condemned by international officials as incitement to commit human rights violations — is actually “very generous” toward Palestinians.
In remarks, Rubio said that Trump’s suggestion — to strip Palestinians who have already faced decades of Israeli dispossession, occupation and violence and to even further erase Palestine and all of the culture within it — was not meant in a “hostile” manner.
“The billions of dollars that are going to be required for reconstruction are enormous. Some areas have been rendered unlivable now and for the foreseeable future. So what President Trump announced yesterday is the offer, the willingness, of the United States to become responsible for the reconstruction of that area,” Rubio said.
The secretary of state appeared to walk back some of Trump’s statements, claiming that Trump was actually suggesting that Palestinians be displaced temporarily while Gaza is rebuilt.
“People are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it. It is akin to a natural disaster,” Rubio said, ignoring the fact that it is the Israeli military, armed with U.S. weapons and intelligence, that has leveled Gaza and rendered it largely uninhabitable.
“It was not meant as a hostile move, it was meant as a, I think, a very generous move, the offer to rebuild,” Rubio said.
Rubio’s statements appeared to be part of a Trump administration strategy to spin what Trump said and frame displacement and American imperialism as a humanitarian endeavor. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Trump was only suggesting for Palestinians to be temporarily moved.
“We’ll own it,” Trump said. “We’re going to take over that piece, develop it and create thousands of thousands of jobs, and it will be something the entire Middle East can be proud of.”
Trump also said that he wanted to “resettle” Palestinians in Gaza “permanently,” in places with less violence and unrest — not acknowledging that Israel, with U.S. sponsorship, has been responsible for the genocide in Gaza and the violence against Palestinians for decades beforehand.
In reality, Trump’s plan, seemingly made without consultation of any Palestinian parties, is a clear call for ethnic cleansing. It would throw millions of Palestinians’ lives into chaos while sowing enormous tension in the Middle East, contributing to even further destabilization. It could also open the door to further expansion of Israeli occupation of Palestine, which has already been ruled illegal by international authorities.
Trump has previously floated plans to redevelop Palestine while totally sidestepping the will of the Palestinian people. In his first term, the administration drew up a $50 billion plan to give Israel control over much of the occupied West Bank and flood foreign investment into Gaza — a plan that opponents noted at the time would violate Palestinians’ right to self-determination and eliminate hopes of a Palestinian state.
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