PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to take over war-ruined Gaza and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere has shattered U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, drawing global condemnation.
The shock move from Trump, a longtime New York property developer, drew rebukes from international powers including Russia, China and Germany, which said it would bring “new suffering and new hatred”. Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal outright.
Trump, in his first major Middle East policy announcement, said he envisioned building a resort where international communities could live in harmony after over 15 months of Israeli bombardment devastated the tiny coastal enclave and killed more than 47,000 people, by Palestinian tallies.
It is not clear whether Trump will go ahead with his controversial proposal or is simply taking an extreme position as a bargaining strategy. Trump said that he plans to visit Gaza, Israel and Saudi Arabia, but did not say when he will go.
“Everybody loves it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, referring to his Gaza idea.
Michael Milshtein, a former intelligence officer and one of Israel’s leading specialists on Hamas, said Trump’s comments put Israel on a collision course with its Arab neighbours.
“Maybe Trump is trying to promote pressure on the Arab states (so) they will not create any obstacles if he tries to promote a normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel.”
Trump offered no specifics as he announced his proposal while welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Tuesday. He said he and his team had been discussing the possibility with Jordan, Egypt and other regional countries.
Netanyahu, who met on Wednesday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, would not be drawn into discussing the proposal, other than to praise Trump for trying a new approach.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Wednesday he rejected any moves to annex land and displace Palestinians. Egypt said it would back Gaza recovery plans, following a ceasefire that took effect on Jan. 19, without Palestinians leaving the territory.
In Gaza, Palestinians living among the wreckage of their former homes said they would never accept the idea.
“Trump can go to hell, with his ideas, with his money, and with his beliefs. We are going nowhere. We are not some of his assets,” said Samir Abu Basel in Gaza City.
In his first two weeks in office, Trump has talked about a U.S. takeover of Greenland, warned of the possible seizure of the Panama Canal and declared that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.
Some critics have said his expansionist rhetoric echoes old-style imperialism, suggesting it could encourage Russia in its war in Ukraine and give China justification for invading self-ruled Taiwan.
Two-State solution
World leaders said they continued to support the two-state solution that has formed the basis of U.S. policy in the region for decades, which has held that Gaza would be part of a future Palestinian state that includes the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
U.S. National Security adviser Mike Waltz on Wednesday downplayed the idea the U.S. was walking away from longstanding Middle East policy. “I certainly didn’t hear the president say it was the end of the two-state solution,” he told CBS News.
An official from Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip before the war there that followed Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel, said Trump’s proposal was “ridiculous and absurd”.
“Any ideas of this kind are capable of igniting the region,” Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, saying Hamas remains committed to the ceasefire accord with Israel and negotiating its next phase.
Trump’s pronouncements appear to run counter to U.S. public opinion, which polls have shown is overwhelmingly opposed to new military entanglement in conflict zones following lengthy interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump frequently asserted during the 2024 election campaign and since returning to office that he would end what he called “ridiculous” wars and prevent others from starting.
Permanent displacement
Trump’s son-in-law and former aide, Jared Kushner, last year described Gaza as “valuable” waterfront property and on Tuesday Trump called for the permanent resettlement of more than two million Palestinians from the Mediterranean enclave.
The proposal raises questions about whether Saudi Arabia would be willing to join a renewed U.S.-brokered push for a historic normalisation of relations with Israel.
Saudi Arabia, a pivotal U.S. ally in the Middle East, said it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state, contradicting Trump’s claim that Riyadh was not demanding a Palestinian homeland.
Trump would like Saudi Arabia to follow in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, a Middle East trade and business hub, and Bahrain that signed the so-called Abraham Accords in 2020 and normalised ties with Israel.
But on Wednesday, the kingdom’s foreign ministry said Saudi Arabia rejected any attempts to remove Palestinians from their land and said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had affirmed this position in “a clear and explicit manner”.
Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right Israeli lawmaker and former minister for national security, said “encouraging” Gazans to emigrate was the only correct strategy at the end of the Gaza war and urged Netanyahu to adopt the policy “immediately”.
Another ‘Nakba’?
Gaza residents said after war and bombs had failed to eject them from Gaza that Trump would not succeed in doing so.
As fighting raged in the Gaza war, Palestinians feared they would suffer another “Nakba,” or catastrophe, the time when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed of their homes in the war at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948.
Now they fear another round of displacement.
“We will not leave our areas,” said Um Tamer Jamal, a 65-year-old mother of six. “We have brought our kids up teaching them that they can’t leave their home and they can’t allow a second Nakba.”
