Dozens of UN human rights experts are warning that President Donald Trump’s plan for ethnic cleansing and U.S. control over Gaza would have horrific consequences if implemented, threatening to regress the world to the “dark days of colonial conquest.”
In a statement released Tuesday, the group of UN officials, independent experts and special rapporteurs said that Trump’s plan is not just “manifestly illegal” and a plain violation of international human rights law, but also a threat to the very foundation of international order.
“Such blatant violations by a major power would break the global taboo on military aggression and embolden other predatory countries to seize foreign territories, with devastating consequences for peace and human rights globally,” the experts said.
“Implementing the U.S. proposal would shatter the most fundamental rules of the international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945, that the US was instrumental in creating to restore peace after the catastrophic Second World War and Holocaust. It would return the world to the dark days of colonial conquest,” they went on.
The statement was signed by 36 UN experts, including Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on Palestine; Ben Saul, UN special rapporteur regarding human rights with regard to counterterrorism; and experts on rights like food and education.
On Tuesday, during a visit with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Trump repeated his plan for the U.S. to “control” Gaza and forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza.
“We’re going to have it, we’re going to keep it, and we’re going to make sure that there’s going to be peace and there’s not going to be any problem, and nobody’s going to question it, and we’re going to run it very properly,” Trump said.
He also appeared to lay the groundwork for Israel to resume its genocidal slaughter in Gaza, saying that he doesn’t think Hamas is going to meet a deadline from Israeli and U.S. officials to release Israeli captives by this weekend — and that if it doesn’t, “all hell is going to break out.”
Hamas said on Monday that it is withholding the release of Israeli captives until Israel abides by the full terms of the ceasefire agreement, which Hamas said it is fully complying with. Officials for the group said that Israel has repeatedly violated the deal by only allowing in a small fraction of the shelter, food and other necessities it pledged to provide.
Further, Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians amid the supposed ceasefire agreement, officials have counted, and its military has arrested and detained hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in the past month alone — even as Israel is supposed to be releasing scores of Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal.
Trump and his team have tried to frame his plan as being generous toward Palestinians, resettling them away from the rubble and hazards left behind by Israel’s genocide. But there is nothing generous about ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, and the UN experts said that Trump’s plan would only “fuel perpetual war, death and destruction.”
“If the U.S. President is genuinely concerned for the welfare of Palestinians, the U.S. should broker a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for damage resulting from U.S. weapons and munitions supplied to Israel despite the serious risk of violations of humanitarian law, and end arms transfers,” the group of experts said.
A separate group of UN experts, including many of the same signatories, signed a statement released Monday condemning the U.S.’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) as retaliation for its arrest warrants for Israeli officials. Trump signed the order on Thursday with the backing of much of Congress.
“With this order, the U.S. has empowered war criminals by seeking to punish the ICC, denying justice and reparation to thousands of victims around the world, including women and children,” the group said. “This law makes a mockery of the decades-long quest to place law above force and atrocity.”
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