In his first three weeks in the White House, Donald Trump stunned the rest of the world with an overwhelming number of unpredictable innovations.
Trump announced that the U.S. would seize the Gaza Strip and permanently relocate its population elsewhere. Initially, he proposed resettling Palestinians in Egypt and Jordan. However, after strong international backlash, he suggested Somalia or Morocco as alternative destinations for Gaza’s residents.
On February 9, Trump made another statement, this time expressing his intention to buy and own Gaza. He added that he might allow other Middle Eastern states to rebuild parts of the war-torn territory.
A few days later, the American president warned Egypt and Jordan that he would cut off aid if they refused to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza. At the same time, he made it clear that if Palestinians left, they would not be allowed to return to Gaza.
Given the intense negative reaction from the Arab world, Western Europe, and Global South countries, one might agree with The Economist’s conclusion that this proposal is “impractical, unethical, and unprepared” and that President Trump has undermined trust in America. Ultimately, it could lead to unrest and strengthen extremist groups.
On February 11, The New York Times wrote that Trump’s proposal was “the most idiotic and dangerous peace initiative in the Middle East ever put forward by an American president.”
The Global South Rejects Palestinian Displacement
Perhaps the general sentiment of Global South nations was best expressed by the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah on February 7, which stated that Palestinians would never leave their land or abandon their homeland.
According to the newspaper, in an attempt to please his evangelical and Zionist supporters, Trump once again revived the plan of his Zionist son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to expel Palestinians from Gaza. This plan, originally unveiled in 2020, aimed to force Palestinians into Egypt and Jordan while placing Gaza under Israeli control. In February 2024, Kushner, a real estate oligarch by profession, declared that Gaza’s land on the Mediterranean was invaluable. Echoing his relative’s words, Trump emphasized that Gaza is now in ruins and that its people deserve a better life – otherwise, they will die.
A Turkish newspaper advised Trump to “relocate Zionists occupying Palestinian territories to Canada and Greenland, which he wants to make U.S. territory.” With this step, both the Zionists he loves so much and the Palestinians whose plight he allegedly sympathizes with would breathe a sigh of relief. And not a single cent would have to come from the U.S. treasury, as Muslims and conscientious people around the world would finance this project themselves.
The Arab reaction to Trump’s proposal was the most intense. Egypt announced it would hold an emergency Arab summit on February 27 to discuss “serious developments in Palestine.”
On February 10, Arab News editor-in-chief Faisal Abbas emphasized that Saudi Arabia would continue to firmly oppose Israel’s attempts to expel Palestinians and any efforts to undermine their path to statehood. According to the Saudi journalist, Netanyahu has turned himself from a potential partner of the Kingdom, as well as the Arab and Muslim world, into a persona non grata. “No one will want to shake the hand that is so stained with blood.” Netanyahu, he argued, is “becoming Israel’s worst enemy”: a country that for 75 years received global support by warning that its people would not be “thrown into the sea” is now doing the exact opposite – threatening to expel Gaza’s residents.
On February 9, Al-Ahram reported that Egyptian tycoon Hisham Mustafa had proposed an alternative to Trump’s plan. He estimated that rebuilding Gaza would cost around $27 billion and offered to take on the reconstruction himself (his company is Egypt’s largest developer).
The American magazine Foreign Policy noted on February 7 that the war in Gaza had shattered the West’s mythology of universal human unity. The destruction of Gaza by Israel, enabled by Western democracies, became a psychological trial for millions of unwilling witnesses to an act of political evil. They would briefly allow themselves to believe that life was good – only to then hear the screams of a mother watching her daughter burn alive in yet another Israeli-bombed school. Israel, too, will suffer the horrors of war. According to the new IDF Chief of General Staff E. Zamir, the Ministry of Defense “is caring for 5,942 new members of families of the fallen,” while the rehabilitation department has taken in over 15,000 wounded soldiers.
Perhaps Trump’s threats to Canada and Denmark and his vision of a new Mediterranean colony will lead nowhere, but with his revived rhetoric of American empire, he has erased any pretense that other countries should be constrained by anything other than their own power. (The New York Times, February 7, 2025, saw this as a de facto justification of Israeli expansionism.)
Saudi news channel Al Arabiya summarized the situation on February 11: Trump’s plan for Gaza is turning the Arab world against him, as well as against the U.S. and Israel. It could also lead to further deterioration – Saudi Arabia’s peace treaty may be taken off the table, peace with Egypt could collapse, and past alliances between Arab states against Israel may be revived.
This assessment echoes the view of the Israeli opposition newspaper Haaretz: “There are no magical solutions that can simply resolve this conflict. The audacity of presenting such a plan – one that echoes terms like displacement, ethnic cleansing, and other war crimes – is an insult to both Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
Vladimir Mashin, political observer, Candidate of Historical Sciences
