On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s wanted by the Worldwide Legal Courtroom for alleged battle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated in Gaza, was obtained warmly by President Trump on the White Home.
Netanyahu, a longtime backer of Trump, beamed with satisfaction as the 2 males met with reporters and Trump declared that Palestinians, pushed from their houses by Israel’s brutal battle in Gaza, ought to be “resettled” in third international locations. This declaration is successfully an endorsement of calls from the Israeli proper (together with senior government officials) to expel Palestinians that return decades and have accelerated since Oct. 7, 2023. Trump even mentioned that the U.S. would “take over” Gaza.
The president’s remarks shouldn’t be taken calmly. They’re simply the newest in a collection he’s made just lately about transferring Palestinians out of Gaza, chillingly talking of the necessity to “clean out” the territory and asking the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and even Indonesia to take them in. If carried out, such a plan would lead to large upheaval and much more bloodshed and destabilization within the area, and it will contain American troops occupying and colonizing Palestinian land in violation of worldwide legislation.
If anybody doubts the seriousness of Trump’s statements. have little doubt that Netanyahu may take into account them a inexperienced mild to complete what’s at least the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, whether or not it’s carried out by Israeli or American troopers. Certainly, on Thursday, the Israeli navy was ordered to arrange plans for the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians out of Gaza.
Trump was cautious to sofa his plan in humanitarian phrases, as do Israeli officers after they communicate of expelling Palestinians, using euphemisms like voluntary departure or voluntary migration, however make no mistake: It will contain the compelled displacement of some 2 million individuals. Compelled displacement and resettlement are battle crimes, even when executed beneath the pretext of humanitarian intent.
In the meantime, on the bottom in Gaza, Israel’s navy has continued to kill and injure Palestinians for the reason that cease-fire got here into impact final month, and in accordance to an Israeli media report, Netanyahu needs Trump’s help for the “eradication” of Hamas. On Sunday, Israel failed to meet a deadline to ship a negotiating workforce to debate Section 2 of the ceasefire. Netanyahu seems to view the cease-fire as merely a tactical pause and has little or no intention of creating it everlasting.
On the coronary heart of Trump’s Center East coverage is a delusion that was shared by President Biden and fueled by Netanyahu: Israel can get the advantages of peace whereas nonetheless occupying and dispossessing Palestinians. In actuality, Netanyahu’s fantasies of integrating Israel into the Center East by normalizing its relations with regional governments reminiscent of Saudi Arabia are nothing greater than a mirage born of conceitedness and ignorance.
Even when Trump had been to dealer a deal between the 2 international locations, it wouldn’t imply Israel was really accepted by its neighbors and extraordinary individuals within the area. Efforts by Trump and Biden to combine Israel into the Center East beneath the Abraham Accords with out addressing Israel’s oppression of Palestinians have been adopted by the deadliest interval in current historical past in Palestine/Israel.
Any phantasm of peace created by the cease-fire in Gaza or the Abraham Accords is simply that: an phantasm. The underlying reason behind the violence within the area — 77 years of unrelenting Israeli oppression and dispossession of Palestinians — stays. Except or till it’s addressed, there’ll by no means be real or lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
We as Palestinians, particularly the individuals of Gaza, have suffered an excessive amount of and endured horrors that no individuals ought to endure. But it surely should be clear to the Israelis, Individuals and the entire world that we’ll by no means give up to injustice, and we’ll by no means cease struggling for our freedom.
Trump’s and Netanyahu’s plans for Gaza and the Palestinian individuals should be categorically rejected by the worldwide neighborhood and all individuals of conscience.
Mustafa Barghouti is chief and co-founder of the Palestinian Nationwide Initiative headquartered within the West Financial institution.
