Donald Trump has a new plan for Gaza. Speaking on Tuesday, after a meeting with the visiting Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the president of the United States of America said that the US would take over Gaza, own it, and rebuild it after 15 months of war. The stunning declaration was the latest display of Mr Trump’s imperial instincts, also visible in his rhetoric to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal and even Canada. But given the painful and complex modern history of Gaza, this is an even more dangerous suggestion than Mr Trump’s other ideas. The US president doubled down on his call for Palestinians in Gaza to leave the enclave. The forcible eviction of Gaza’s 2.3 million people would amount to an ethnic displacement — cleansing? — according to many legal experts. The US’s ‘annexation’ of Gaza would also be a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter and would be illegal under international law.
Mr Trump has said that he wanted to turn Gaza into a Middle Eastern Riviera, underscoring how for him the Palestinian territory is primarily a plot of real estate by the sea.
Mr Trump’s plan drew instant condemnation within the US and outside. In fact, officials of Mr Trump’s administration are now attempting to soften the blow with assurances that the president had not committed to using military force to clear the territory and that the relocation of the Palestinians would be temporary. These attempts notwithstanding, Mr Trump’s plan will be unacceptable to the Palestinian people; that, in turn, will make it hard for America’s Middle Eastern allies to support the US president. And as much as Mr Trump believes he can use coercion and threats to get the world to bow to this demand, any attempt by the US to forcibly occupy Gaza and evict Palestinians will almost certainly stoke a new war. Hamas, in recent days, has demonstrated how despite the assassinations of its leaders by Israel, it retains a formidable presence in Gaza. For a president who came to power promising not to drag the US into new conflicts, Mr Trump’s new intent on Gaza represents a betrayal of his mandate. Meanwhile, the US president’s latest comments also threaten to upend the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at a time when they along with the mediators — Qatar, the US and Egypt — are discussing the next stage of the truce. In all of this, the people of Gaza and their dreams, fears and hopes stand totally ignored.
It is time for other global leaders, including friends of Mr Trump like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to step in and convince the US against taking the missteps proposed by the US president. Gaza deserves better. So does the world.
