The Palestinian president has said he strongly rejects President Donald
Trump's proposal for the US to take over Gaza and permanently resettle
the 2.1 million Palestinians living there.
"We will not allow the rights of our people... to be infringed on,"
Mahmoud Abbas stressed, warning that Gaza was "an integral part of the
State of Palestine" and forced displacement would be a serious violation
of international law.
Hamas, whose 15-month war with Israel has caused widespread devastation,
said Trump's plan would "put oil on the fire" in the region.
Arab states also rejected the idea, with Saudi Arabia reiterating it
would not normalise ties with Israel without the establishment of a
Palestinian state.
Neighbouring Egypt, who had rejected Trump's suggestion last month that
it and Jordan take in residents of Gaza, stressed the need for
reconstruction "without moving the Palestinians".
It comes two weeks after the start of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza,
during which Hamas has released some Israeli hostages it is holding in
exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to
an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about
1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
More than 47,540 people have been killed and 111,600 injured in Gaza
since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times, almost
70% of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, the
healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and
there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.
President Trump's first major remarks on Middle East policy shattered
decades of US thinking on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He presented them at the White House on Tuesday night alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it
too," he said. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of
the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the
site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings."
Trump estimated that about 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza would
have to be relocated to achieve his vision of creating "the Riviera of
the Middle East", and said they would be housed in Jordan, Egypt and
other countries.
When asked whether the refugees would eventually be allowed to return,
he said that "the world's people" would live in Gaza, before adding
"also Palestinians".
Trump also brushed aside previous objections from Jordan and Egypt's
leaders to taking in refugees, insisting that they would eventually
"open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get
this done".
Netanyahu said Trump's proposal could "change history" and was "worth
paying attention to", adding: "This is the kind of thinking that will
reshape the Middle East and bring peace."
A unnamed senior Israeli official was also quoted as saying that Trump's
ideas surpassed all his "expectations and dreams".
However, the Palestinian leadership condemned the plan in a statement
issued on Wednesday.
"These calls represent a serious violation of international law,"
President Abbas said, adding that "peace and stability will not be
achieved in the region without the establishment of a Palestinian state".
Abbas leads Hamas rivals Fatah and governs parts of the Israeli-occupied
West Bank.
He declared that Palestinians would not "give up their land, rights, and
sacred sites" and that "the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the land
of the State of Palestine, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem".
Palestinians in Gaza also said the plan was completely out of the question.
"We have endured nearly a year and a half of bombings and destruction,
yet we remain in Gaza," one man told BBC Arabic.
"We would rather die in Gaza than leave it. We will stay here until we
rebuild it. Trump can do as he pleases, but we firmly reject his decisions."
Western governments also expressed alarm about any forced displacement.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gw89x8x11o
Trump should get some sleep. He's getting to be an embarrassment.
The amusement park in Birkenau, make that Gaza, will not be a Riviera.
It will be a prime target for all kinds of pilgrims dreaming of Jeannie.
So will the US itself.
The Finnskies hardly mind though if the 2M are transported to Finland.
There's tons of space there nobody wants to live in. If Twump takes this
up with the present leaders of Finland, I'm sure they will all "Jawohl!"
it. With the birthrates being what they are, in 10 years Finnskies will
be an ethnic minority weeping for their lost culture. If there ever was one.
--
“We need to acknowledge he let us down. He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him. We shouldn’t have listened to him, and we can’t let that happen ever again”.
-- Nikki Haley
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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