Social justice organizations based in the U.S. issued a Monday joint statement condemning President Trump’s plans to redevelop the Gaza Strip, effectively displacing Palestinians from their homeland.
“The United States has no right to dictate to the Palestinian people in Gaza to leave, and direct other countries to participate in their displacement. We are also aware that even a temporary external displacement could be used by Israel to enact permanent exile,” organizations including CODEPINK, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and Resignees from Biden Admin over Gaza, in addition to others, stated in the letter.
“While we agree that the short and medium-term humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza may be difficult to meet given the nearly complete destruction that Israel has wrought, if the necessary services cannot be provided in Gaza, the people of Gaza must be able to access them elsewhere within the historic borders of Palestine and must be able to return.”
During a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, President Trump suggested an overhaul of Gaza involving U.S. long-term ownership of the land, which he proposed becomes “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump said Monday that Palestinians would not have the right to return to the Gaza Strip if it is taken over and developed by the United States, as he has proposed. “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing. Much better,” Trump told Fox News’s Bret Baier. He said he would reach a deal with Jordan and Egypt to have them take in displaced Palestinians; leaders of those countries and other Arab nations have rejected the idea.
The organizations’ statement alleged the effort was “ethnic cleansing” and a clear violation of international humanitarian law under Article 49(1) of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
“Palestine is not just an idea — it is a place. It is a homeland to the Palestinian people,” they wrote.
“To participate in, facilitate, or endorse their removal from it would violate every precept of international law, devastate the rules-based international order that protects us all, do irreversible harm to America’s global influence, and be an act of unconscionable immorality.”
The coalition of U.S. organizations is advocating for a peaceable consensus that does not result in the displacement of Palestinians.
“We, the undersigned organizations, decry and oppose any effort or initiative, and any calls for, the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and support the Joint Statement of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League that similarly rejected any such steps,” they wrote in their joint statement.
