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World Largely Rejects Trump’s Relocation Plan for Gaza, Demands Two-State Solution
A general view shows destroyed buildings in northern Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, Nov. 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
JNS.org — Global reaction came swiftly on Wednesday to US President Donald Trump’s call for Gazans to be relocated out of the Strip, which he described as a “demolition site” — with most, if not all, countries panning the idea.
Trump proposed that ownership of the Strip be transferred to the United States, which would rebuild it.
“This was not a decision made lightly,” he said. “Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know.”
Palestinians could be located to various locales. “It could be numerous sites or it could be one large site, but the people will be able to live in comfort and peace,” Trump said. “We’ll make sure something really spectacular is done.”
Most countries, which have embraced a two-state solution whereby a Palestinian state would be established adjoining the Jewish state in territories liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, expressed a mixture of incredulity and indignation.
“They [Palestinians] must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock released a statement insisting that a negotiated two-state solution is the only path forward, not only rejecting Trump’s relocation plan but calling for Israel’s capital to be divided.
“It is clear that Gaza — like the West Bank and East Jerusalem — belongs to the Palestinians. They form the starting point for a future state of Palestine,” Baerbock said.
“The expulsion of the Palestinian civilian population from Gaza would not only be unacceptable and contrary to international law. It would also lead to new suffering and new hatred,” she added.
France also rejected the proposal, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine saying, “France reiterates its opposition to any forced displacement of the Palestinian population of Gaza, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a major destabilizing factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan as well as for the entire region.”
Spain, which recognized a State of Palestine together with Norway and Ireland on May 28, 2024, also criticized the plan.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said, “I want to be very clear on this: Gaza is the land of Gazan Palestinians and they must stay in Gaza. Gaza is part of the future Palestinian state Spain supports and has to coexist guaranteeing the Israeli state’s prosperity and safety.”
Ireland, whose leadership’s allegedly antisemitic “actions and rhetoric” recently led Israel to close its Dublin embassy, also panned the idea.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris said, “It’s very clear the direction of travel here: We need a two-state solution, and the people of Palestine and the people of Israel both have a right to live in states safely side by side, and that’s where the focus has to be.”
“Any idea of displacing the people of Gaza anywhere else would be in clear contradiction with UN Security Council resolutions,” he added.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, “Australia’s position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year. The Australian government supports on a bipartisan basis a two-state solution.”
Russia, which greeted a Hamas delegation in Moscow as recently as Monday, said a settlement is only possible in the framework of the two-state solution.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “This is the thesis that is enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolution. This is the thesis that is shared by the overwhelming majority of countries involved in this problem. We proceed from it. We support it and believe that this is the only possible option.”
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said, “China hopes all parties will take ceasefire and post-conflict governance as an opportunity to bring the Palestinian issue back on the right track of political settlement based on the two-state solution.”
Do what is necessary
During his 40-minute press conference on Tuesday night with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “We’ll own it [Gaza] 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.”
The US takeover of Gaza could involve the deployment of American troops, according to Trump. “We’ll do what is necessary,” he said. “If it’s necessary, we’ll do that.”
Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and the Palestinian Authority wrote to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday to reject the idea of resettling Palestinians outside of the Strip. But Trump said on Tuesday that “neighboring countries of great wealth” could pay for the relocation of Gazans.
Trump suggested that under US ownership and development, Palestinians could return to Gaza but that it would become an international zone.
“This is not for Israel,” Trump said. “This is for everybody in the Middle East — Arabs, Muslims, this is for everybody.
“I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place,” he said. “Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there.”
Elements of what Trump described were redolent of the so-called “Trump Mideast peace plan” that he unveiled in 2020, which included developing Gaza’s waterfront into a tourism destination.
“I don’t want to be cute. I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East,” the hotel magnate and president said Tuesday. “This could be so magnificent.”
Trump said that his Gaza development plan did not rule out a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or one-state or any other state,” he said. “It means that we want to give people a chance at life. They have never had a chance at life because the Gaza Strip has been a hell hole.”
He added that he intends to visit the enclave, which Hamas has controlled, as part of a regional tour.
“I’ll visit Gaza,” the American leader said. “I’ll visit Saudi Arabia, and I’ll visit other places all over the Middle East. The Middle East is an incredible place.”
Netanyahu said Trump’s vision is in line with his war goal of ensuring that Gaza can never pose a threat to Israel again.
“President Trump is taking it to a much higher level,” Netanyahu said. “I think it’s worth paying attention to this. We’re talking about it. He’s exploring it with his people, with his staff. I think it’s something that could change history, and it’s worthwhile, really pursuing this avenue.”
Trump said that he had not yet made a decision about the United States recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, but that there will “probably” be a decision on the question “over the next four weeks.”
Netanyahu called Trump the “greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, all this in just two weeks,” Netanyahu said of Trump’s executive actions since the start of his second term. “Can we imagine where we’ll be in four years? I can.”
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.