It’s not easy to catch Palestinians off guard, given the scenes from 15 months of Israeli bombardment, siege, starvation, and the world’s inaction to what Amnesty International has called a “genocide”.
But if anyone can throw things off kilter, it’s US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday said the US would expel Palestinians from Gaza, likely move in American troops, and then develop “the Riviera of the Middle East” for tourists.
The stunning announcement was made alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was given the privilege of being the first foreign leader to visit the White House in Trump’s second term.
But the backlash to Trump’s “long-term ownership” of Gaza was swift.
Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian in the chamber, said, “Palestinians aren’t going anywhere”.
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“This president can only spew this fanatical bullshit because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing,” Tlaib wrote on X. “It’s time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up.”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy called Trump’s comments a mere distraction.
“The US isn’t invading and occupying Gaza. Trump wants us to talk about this crazy idea all day to relieve the pressure on him that is building as the public figures out that a theft is occurring – the billionaires illegally taking over government to steal from us,” he wrote on X, referencing the domestic chaos unfolding as billionaire Elon Musk shuts down US agencies.
And Republican Senator Rand Paul, who has long identified as a Libertarian, said, “The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
“I thought we voted for America First,” he wrote on X. “We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”
‘A new Nakba’
Palestinians who have already left Gaza marvelled at what they saw as the callousness of Trump’s remarks.
“I’m in a state of shock. I almost don’t believe they can be rude as such,” Palestinian human rights lawyer Raji Sourani told Middle East Eye.
Sourani, 70, born and bred in Gaza, left through Egypt and then went to Europe one year ago after Israel destroyed his home. He remains the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza and is a party to South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“A first-class war criminal [like] Netanyahu standing in the White House, invited… and dealt with respectfully as though there is no [International Criminal Court] warrant against him, and praised as a hero and supported politically, financially, legally, and they decide publicly in a press conference in front of the whole world… to complete the genocide mission? To make a new Nakba?” Sourani asked.
“I mean, I just don’t believe it.”
Instead of expelling Palestinians, Sourani suggested the Israelis be offered one-way tickets instead.
“Why the Israelis not be paid? I mean, in the US, there is a huge, vast land. They can settle them anywhere they like. We didn’t do the Holocaust.”
Palestinians, he said, “are the stones of the valley… no power on earth can kick us out”.
And while many living inside Gaza today have expressed similar sentiments, others say the notion that all Palestinians will simply tolerate what comes their way is “dehumanising”.
“You know, there is a lot of mythologisation of the Palestinians, that we are superhumans who, despite any pain, wouldn’t leave. That’s not true, and that’s dehumanising to an extent,” Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian political analyst based in Washington, told MEE.
Sayegh is the founder of the Palestinian-Israeli shared vision platform, The Agora Initiative.
His father died of a heart attack in Gaza in 2023 while sheltering at the Church of the Holy Family, which came under attack by Israeli snipers.
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“When we are pushed and we have to choose between staying or our kids will die, I think many of us would choose rightfully to leave,” he said. “Others who stay, despite them dying with their kids, we also have to respect them and see them as humans.”
If the Rafah border to Egypt reopens, Sayegh said, he estimates that up to half a million Palestinians would leave Gaza now if they were provided the means.
It would be, he confessed, “a disaster” for the Strip.
“However, in terms of ethnic cleansing and the demographic war that we have with Israel, that wouldn’t be a threat because, ultimately, the birth rate in Gaza is so high that in three or four years, we’ll be able to have the demographic balance back again,” Sayegh told MEE.
So where does that leave Trump’s extreme opening bid to negotiate Gaza’s future?
“Two things have to happen. In my opinion, Hamas has to clearly say that they’re willing to not be in the picture. This hasn’t happened at all… [And] the Arabs have to push Trump,” he said.
“We’ve seen the Arabs already doing that. We’ve seen the Egyptians already doing that [but] they have to come to the table, from my point of view, to Trump with a plan that is actionable.”
Saudi Arabia was the first among the Arab nations to denounce Trump’s plans and insist on a Palestinian state before it considers what would be the ultimate prize: diplomatic relations with Israel.
Jordan and Egypt have also firmly rejected plans to take in Palestinians from Gaza.
“I think the Arabs so far are taking a good stance,” Sayegh told MEE. “If they continue to do so, I think we can overcome this, inshallah.”
Ultimately, whatever Palestinians may be forced to do, they will not be “good victims,” Sourani said.
“Whatever the conditions are or will be, people have no intention to leave. We have no other home, Palestine is our homeland.”
Aftermath
By Wednesday morning, Arab Americans For Trump, which led the charge to get him elected among those angered by Joe Biden’s perpetuation of the war on Gaza, sent out a press release changing its name to Arab Americans For Peace.
“We are adamantly opposed to the notion of transferring Palestinians outside of historic Palestine for ANY reason,” the statement read. “We appreciate the president’s offer to clean and rebuild Gaza. However, the purpose should be to make Gaza habitable for Palestinians and no one else.”
Within hours, the administration began the cleanup effort, with officials significantly walking back Trump’s proposal.
In an interview with CBS, Trump’s national security advisor, Michael Waltz, all but admitted the president was effectively starting a negotiation process by adopting an extreme position.
“The fact that nobody has a realistic solution, and [Trump] puts some very bold fresh new ideas out on the table, I don’t think should be criticised in any way,” Waltz said. “I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions.”
This was further communicated at the White House briefing, where press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “Donald Trump, who is the best dealmaker on the planet, is going to strike a deal with our partners in the region.”
Asked about US “boots on the ground” in Gaza, Leavitt said Trump has not “committed” to that idea “yet”.
And his real estate development of the enclave? “This is an out-of-the-box idea,” Leavitt responded, and “American taxpayers” will not be footing the bill, she said.
While on a trip to Guatemala, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reframed Trump’s entire proposal, saying that Palestinians would only relocate temporarily and that Trump’s offer is an act of generosity.
“Obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it. It is akin to a natural disaster,” Rubio said. “So what he’s very generously offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding of homes and businesses and things of this nature, so that then people can move back in.”
Still, there was no way to take back what Trump very publicly put on the table.
