 "US President Donald Trump has proposed to resettle Palestinians and take permanent control of the Gaza Strip. AP")
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (February 4) proposed a controversial plan concerning the Gaza Strip. He suggested that the United States “take over” Gaza , aiming to transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
This plan also involves resettling the current Palestinians and redeveloping the area to boost economic growth and stability.
While Trump’s proposal has been lauded by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinians have upfront rejected it of leaving the land and settling in neighbouring countries Egypt and Jordan. Meanwhile, both nations have rejected the notion of resettling Gazans within their borders, reported news agency Al Jazeera.
As Trump is set on trying to impose this plan in Gaza, here is why it may not work.
Unbreakable Palestinian connection to their land
Palestinians have a deep connection to their land, which has been disregarded by Trump. Following the Gaza ceasefire, half a million displaced people quickly returned to their homes.
“This is the happiest day of my life,” one of them, Lamees al-Iwady, said on January 28. The Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, dismissed the idea outright.
“Our homeland is our homeland,” he said. “For those who want to send them to a happy, nice place, let them go back to their original homes inside Israel, there are nice places there, and they will be happy to return to these places.”
Arab nations stand against Trump’s Gaza plan
Trump’s proposal for moving Palestinians to neighbouring countries has been firmly rejected by the Arab nations. Several West Asian nations, including Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, condemned violations of Palestinian rights on Saturday (February 1).
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas went to Jordan on Wednesday to consult King Abdullah II, signalling deep concern in Amman and Ramallah.
Public opinion in Arab states is also expected to be unanimously hostile to the proposal. “Expect reactions to range from confusion to outrage, including demonstrations across the Middle East and beyond in the coming days,” Emily Harding of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote on X.
Growing global weariness of endless conflicts
The 78-year-old leader would face a complex situation if US troops were deployed to Gaza, as this action could be seen as a reversal of a core Republican campaign pledge to stay out of foreign wars.
Those forces would meet fierce opposition from Palestinian militants Hamas —much weakened by 15 months of war against Israel but by no means eradicated.
Hamas and its ally, Islamic Jihad, have shown the ability to sustain a violent insurgency against the conventional military force of the kind that looms large in the American memory following failed military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam.
International law
Trump would also be undermining international law and dismantling the post-war global order that Washington had long championed — at least in rhetoric.
“The US could only take control of Gaza with the consent of the sovereign authority of the territory. Israel can’t cede Gaza to the US,” said Tamer Morris, a specialist in international law at the University of Sydney.
“A government, such as the Palestinian Authority, cannot give this consent on behalf of a people. People have a right to self-determination –- the right to determine their own future,” Morris wrote on The Conversation.
The legal expert added that even if Trump’s proposal doesn’t come to fruition, his casual dismissal of international norms will be damaging on its own.
“The nonchalant way Trump is discussing things such as taking over a territory and moving a population gives the impression these rules can easily be broken, even if he doesn’t break them himself,” Morris said.
Underlining the legal ramifications of Trump’s proposal, the United Nations reiterated international law strictly prohibits any expulsion of people from an occupied territory.
Political uncertainty
While Netanyahu and his supporters seem emboldened by Trump’s statements, Israel’s broader political class remains cautious, mindful of legislative elections looming in a year.
“The far right is ecstatic, jubilant,” said David Khalfa, a researcher at the Fondation Jean-Jaures in Paris.
“The more moderate, centrist elements of parliament are congratulating Trump but expressing doubts about the feasibility of his plan.”
The researcher pointed to remarks by opposition leader Yair Lapid following Trump’s announcement, stressing the need for Israeli leadership to present plans rather than rely on the United States.
Khalfa said Lapid’s remarks showed the Israeli politician “believes the plan is not at all realistic, or even counter-productive”.
“Trump is fundamentally and above all a businessman,” the Paris-based researcher said.
And the US president’s plan was conceived as “a way of getting all the players in the region on board, to get out of the Israeli-Palestinian face-off, doomed to a repetition of the same tragedy,” he added.
With inputs from AFP