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Advocates for Palestinian rights are decrying President Donald Trump’s call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza during his Tuesday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and are pointing out that the Biden administration’s support for the genocide in Gaza laid the groundwork for such a plan.
In remarks with Netanyahu, Trump called for the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, effectively continuing the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza that Israel has carried out over the course of its genocide and for decades before. Instead, Trump said that the U.S. “will take over the Gaza Strip” and develop it.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza,” Trump said in comments ahead of the meeting. “Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative.”
Trump’s comments spurred rage and defiance from advocates for Palestinian rights, who reiterated that Palestinians deserve to live in their homeland without interference from Israel or any other occupying force.
“Palestinians aren’t going anywhere,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), the only Palestinian American in Congress.
Tlaib emphasized that the widespread support for Israel’s genocide and occupation of Palestine laid the groundwork for Trump to call for Palestinians’ expulsion.
“This president can only spew this fanatical bullshit because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing. It’s time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up,” Tlaib continued.
The lawmaker also criticized Trump for prioritizing a meeting with Netanyahu — his first with a foreign official in his second term — while he and Elon Musk gut the federal government.
“This president is openly calling for ethnic cleansing while sitting next to a genocidal war criminal,” Tlaib said. “He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing.”
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese called Trump’s remark “unlawful, immoral, [and] irresponsible” in a press conference. She said that Trump was calling for forced expulsion — “an international crime.”
“I truly hope that people will stay calm, will not panic, and will remember that the international community is made of 193 states, and this is the time to give the U.S. what it has been looking for: isolation,” she said.
Other advocates said that Trump’s call shows that the resistance to the dispossession and dehumanization of Palestinians must continue under the new administration just as it did under President Joe Biden.
“President Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and have the U.S. ‘take over’ is yet another chapter in the ongoing genocide,” said Abdullah H. Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. “Deploying U.S. troops and using taxpayer dollars to invade Gaza is morally indefensible. Our commitment to justice remains unshaken, no matter who sits in the White House.”
Advocacy groups emphasized that Trump’s comments are a result of U.S. politicians’ embrace of the Israeli far right, which has long advocated for the total ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
“The last administration provided the weapons to kill tens of thousands of Palestinians, flatten Gaza, and displace nearly the entire population. Now Trump himself is repeating the calls of Israeli right-wing ministers such as [Finance Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and calling for Palestinians to be permanently and involuntarily expelled, an out-and-out war crime,” said IMEU Policy Project Executive Director Margaret DeReus.
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