Aletho News

Trump calls for ethnic cleansing of Gaza’s population to Egypt, Jordan

The Cradle | January 26, 2025

While flying on Air Force One on 26 January, US President Donald Trump told reporters that the residents of Gaza should be “cleaned out” and ethnically cleansed to neighboring Arab countries after Israel’s US-backed bombing campaign turned the enclave into a “demolition site.”

“I’d like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people. You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we can just clean out the whole thing,” Trump said.

“You know, over the centuries, it’s had many, many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen. It’s literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished, and people are dying there, so 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,” the president added.

“I said to [the Jordanian King], I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people … I’d like Egypt to take people [from Gaza],” Trump continued, saying he would discuss it with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement condemned the inflammatory comments in an official statement: “Trump’s statements are consistent with the worst of the agenda of the extreme Israeli right and a continuation of the denial of the existence of our people … We call on all countries, especially the Egyptian and Jordanian governments, to reject Trump’s plan, and we affirm that our people will thwart this scheme.”

The US president’s son-in-law and powerful businessman, Jared Kushner, has previously advocated developing new communities in Gaza due to its prime location and beaches on the Mediterranean Sea.

Israeli businessmen close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have advocated for the development of Gaza as a modern residential community and tax-free business and manufacturing zone, presumably to be built after all or most Palestinians have been expelled.

In the wake of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that took effect on 19 January, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are seeking to return to their homes, or what is left of them.

It is unclear whether the ceasefire will hold or whether Israel will seek to resume the war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated he will.

Trump’s comments, including his claim that he wants to save Palestinian lives, echoed the recommendations of a leaked Israeli Ministry of Information report issued on 13 October 2023, just a week after Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the beginning of Israel’s massive bombing campaign that has now left Gaza largely uninhabitable.

The plan recommended the ethnic cleansing of Gaza using humanitarian justifications. The document recommends beginning a dedicated campaign that will “motivate” Gazans “to agree to the plan,” and make them give up their land.

Gazans should be convinced that “Allah made sure that you lost this land because of the leadership of Hamas – there is no choice but to move to another place with the help of Your Muslim brothers,” the document reads.

Further, the plan states the government must launch a public relations campaign that will promote the transfer of Palestinians to Arab and western states in a way that does not promote hostility to Israel or damage its reputation.

The deportation of the population from Gaza must be presented as a necessary humanitarian measure to receive international support. Such a deportation could be justified if it will lead to “fewer casualties among the civilian population compared to the expected number of casualties if they remain,” the document says.

The document also states that the US should be leveraged to pressure Egypt to take in the residents of Gaza and to encourage other European countries, and in particular Greece, Spain, and Canada, to help take in and settle the refugees who will be evacuated from Gaza.

Finally, the document claims that if the population of Gaza remains, there will be “many Arab deaths” during the expected occupation of Gaza by the Israeli army, and this will damage Israel’s international image even more than the deportation of the population. For all these reasons, the recommendation of the Ministry of Intelligence is to promote the transfer of all Palestinians in Gaza to the Sinai permanently.

January 26, 2025 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | Human rights, Israel, Palestine, United States, Zionism