Donald Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza has been Israel’s one for decades

Donald Trump has shocked the international community over Gaza at a joint press conference with butcher Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump has claimed that the US will “take over” the Gaza strip, with Palestinians to be moved to other countries in his plan for ethnic cleansing. He said:

The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that, we’re going to take over that piece, we’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.

Trump then claimed that Palestinians should be moved “permanently” to neighbouring states like Egypt and Jordan. This plan would constitute ethnic cleansing and, as many in the international community have noted, would be illegal under the Geneva Convention. Article 49 of the convention:

prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring or removing people from a territory.

But, Netanyahu has long been advocating for a similar plan. The outrage from the international community, then, must surely be aimed at more than just Trump.

Bombastic Trump want to break international law over Gaza

For his part, Netanyahu praised this plan, saying that Trump was “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”

In December 2023 Netanyahu discussed what he called “voluntary immigration” wherein Palestinians who “want to leave Gaza to a third country can do so.” At the time, the Middle East Eye presciently reported:

Palestinians have long said Israel’s current campaign in Gaza is aimed at ensuring their permanent expulsion from the area.

Israel’s military strategy is seemingly aimed at making Gaza uninhabitable by destroying anything that sustains life, hoping that Palestinians will then “voluntarily” leave.

Israel have spent over a year destroying basis infrastructure necessary for survival. Nevertheless, both Netanyahu and Trump are on a hiding to nowhere if they think Palestinians would every ‘voluntarily’ leave their homeland. As lawyer Noura Erakat wrote:

God is not a real estate agent,neither is the most criminal, narcissistic leader of empire. Palestinians belong to Palestine. They have survived 76 yrs of Nakba, & 15 months of its cruelest phase. They survived to return, to stay, to thrive.Their ability to do so is on all of us.

— Noura Erakat (@4noura) February 5, 2025

Also in 2023, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said:

There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. There is no Palestinian history. There is no Palestinian language.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu repeated his opposition to a two state solution, and CNN characterised his comments as part of “a rift with the US” on what happens to Palestine next. At the time, Biden’s White House insisted that a two state solution was the US’ preferred option – in opposition to the Israeli government.

Policy vs practice

Whilst headlines in mainstream media will present Trump’s remarks as a swerving U-turn on American policy in Palestine the reality is quite different.

Whilst Biden’s government said they supported a two-state solution, what they actually did was enable Israel’s ongoing attempt at ethnic cleansing.

The reason Gaza is in a state of such destruction, with bodies still waiting to be found under the rubble, hospitals bombed, schools attacked, children’s bodies blown into pieces, is because the US provided Israel with the funds, arms, and geopolitical support to decimate Gaza.

Trump may have said the quiet part out loud, but it’s Biden who laid the ground work.

Trump has said that he believes Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave their country. Biden may not have said it out loud, but he has the same blood on his hands that Netanyahu does.

There should have been outcry from the international community at each step of Israeli attempts at ethnically cleansing Palestine.

Instead, in spite of Netanyahu consistently advocating for the erasure of Palestine, US officials have hedged their bets. In 2024 Truthout reported:

Even as the [US] administration offered milquetoast criticism of Netanyahu’s vow of ethnic cleansing and mass death, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller reiterated that the administration’s “support for Israel remains ironclad,” even if there are “differences between our two countries.”

Trump is not a renegade. He is a product of the US system of expansionism and colonialism. Netanyahu has never tried to hide his intentions for Palestine – now it appears the US government is matching rhetoric with policy.

Featured image via the Canary