Roving Periscope: Trump’s Gaza plan draws fire; the US says it’s “temporary”
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With President Donald Trump’s proposed plan for the Gaza ‘takeover’ and relocation of the Palestinians drawing international condemnation, his aides defended the proposal and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio climbed down stating the Palestinians’ resettlement would only be “temporary.”
Welcoming the proposal, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “nothing wrong” with Trump’s idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
While Israel quit the UN rights bodies for rejecting the plan, the Palestinians vowed not to relocate anywhere from Gaza, the media reported on Thursday.
Rights groups have condemned as ‘ethnic cleansing’ Trump’s suggestion that Palestinians in the Gaza enclave should be permanently displaced, while also proposing a US takeover of Gaza.
Rubio’s ‘clarification’ followed Trump’s suggestion that the US could “take over” Gaza and resettle around two million Palestinians living there – an idea that has drawn criticism from the UN, human rights groups, and Arab leaders.
In particular, Egypt and Jordan, who expelled the unmanageable Palestinians in the past, have stoutly opposed the Trump proposal.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt clarified Trump’s comments, saying the US was not planning to put “boots on the ground” in the war-torn territory.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Gazans “should be allowed to enjoy freedom of exit and immigration.” He did not explain how the proposal would work – or whether the Gazans would be able to return after reconstruction.
He said countries like Spain, Ireland and Norway – critics of the Israeli war in Gaza – “are legally obligated to allow every Gazan resident to enter their territory.” However, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno rejected the suggestion.
In Guatemala, Rubio said Trump’s proposal was not “hostile,” but a “generous move,” showing “the willingness of the United States to become responsible for the reconstruction of that area.”
He said the idea was for Gazans to leave the territory for an “interim” period while debris was cleared and reconstruction took place.
Under international law, attempts to forcibly transfer populations from occupied territory are strictly prohibited.
Leavitt’s comments came after Trump proposed taking control of the Gaza Strip and redeveloping it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” President Trump said on Tuesday during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called the idea “worth paying attention to.”
Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered in cities across the US on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from his anti-immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the war-torn Gaza Strip, the media reported.
Protesters in Philadelphia, California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and other places denounced President Trump, his ally Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.
The protests came after an organized online movement under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.”
