President Donald Trump's proposal that Egypt and Jordan should take Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, which was devastated by the war, needs to be a transparent “no” for the 2 US allies and the Palestinians themselves, which fear that Israel would never allow them to return cause.
Trump brought the concept into circulation on Saturday and said that he would urge the leaders of the 2 Arab countries to take up the now largely homeless population of the Gaza Strip in order that “we simply clear the whole thing”. He added that the relocation of the Gaza population could “be temporarily or long-term”.
“At the moment it is in the truest sense of the word,” said Trump, referring to the large destruction that Israel's 15-month military mission against the Hamas, which was now interrupted by a brittle armistice.
“I would rather deal with some of the Arab nations and build apartments in another place where they may be able to live in peace for a change,” said Trump.
There was no immediate comment from Egyptian, Jordanian, Israeli or Palestinian officials.
The idea needs to be welcomed by Israel, where the appropriate -wing government partners of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have long since emerged for the voluntary migration of a lot of Palestinians and the restoration of Jewish settlements in Gaza, as they call it.
Human rights groups have already accused of ethnic cleansing which have defined experts from the United Nations as a policy of an ethnic or religious group in an effort to sell the civilian population of one other group “with violent and terrorist funds” from certain areas.
A history of displacement
Before and in the course of the war for the founding of Israel in 1948, around 700,000 Palestinians fled nearly all of the pre -war population – or were driven out of their houses in today's Israel, an event that she as a Nakba – Arabic for disaster.
Israel refused to return to them because this may have led to a Palestinian majority inside its limits. The variety of refugees and their descendants is now around 6 million, with large communities within the Gaza Strip, where they make up nearly all of the population, in addition to within the West Bank occupied by Israel, in Jordan, in Lebanon and in Syria.
In the Middle East War in 1967, when Israel conquered the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, 300,000 other Palestinians fled to Jordan.
The a long time of refugee crisis was a vital driver of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was one of the delicate topics within the peace talks that recently failed in 2009. The Palestinians call for a right of return, while Israel says that they needs to be absorbed by the encircling Arab countries.
Many Palestinians take a look at the recent war in Gaza, during which entire districts were bombed and 90 % of the two.3 million inhabitants had to depart their houses than a brand new Nakba. They fear that if a lot of Palestinians leave Gaza, they might never return.
The steadfast whereabouts in your individual country is of central importance for Palestinian culture and was clearly displayed in Gaza on Sunday, when hundreds of individuals tried to return to the strongest a part of the territory.
A red line for Egypt and Jordan
Egypt and Jordan decidedly rejected the concept of accepting Gaza refugees at first of the war when it was brought into play by some Israeli officials.
Both countries have made peace with Israel, but support the creation of a Palestinian state within the occupied West Bank, within the Gaza Strip and in Eastern Jerusalem, the areas that Israel had conquered within the Middle East War in 1967. They fear that the everlasting expulsion of the population of Gazas could make this unattainable.
The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi also warned of the results on the safety that might bring the transfer of a lot of Palestinians to the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula on the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hamas and other militant groups are deeply rooted within the Palestinian society and are more likely to draw with the refugees, which might mean that future wars could be waged on Egyptian soil, which could destroy the historical peace treaty of Camp David, a cornerstone of regional stability.
“The peace we have reached would disappear from our hands,” said Al-Sissi in October 2023 after the attack by Hamas on South Israel triggered the war. “Everything in the interest of the idea of eliminating the Palestinian thing.”
So it happened in Lebanon within the Seventies, when the Palestinian liberation organization of Jassir Arafat, the leading militant group of her time, transformed the south of the country right into a start line for attacks on Israel. The refugee crisis and the procedure of the PLO contributed to the undeniable fact that the Lebanon fell right into a 15-year civil war in 1975. From 1982 to 2000 Israel marched twice and occupied the South Libanon.
Jordan, who collided with the PLO under similar circumstances in 1970 and this distribution, already houses greater than two million Palestinian refugees, most of whom have received citizenship.
Israeli ultra -nationalists have long proposed to think about Jordan as a Palestinian state in order that Israel can keep the West Bank, which, in her opinion, is the biblical core country of the Jewish people. The Jordanian monarchy vehemently rejected this scenario.
Can Trump force allies to just accept refugees?
It depends upon how serious Trump is with the concept and the way far he’s able to go.
US tariffs-one of Trump's preferred business instruments-or complete sanctions could have devastating consequences for Jordan and Egypt. The two countries receive American aid yearly in billions of bills, and Egypt is already in an economic crisis.
But the approval of a refugee inflow is also destabilizing. Egypt states to take up around 9 million migrants, including refugees from the Sudanese civil war. Jordan has lower than 12 million inhabitants and houses over 700,000 refugees, mainly from Syria.
The pressure from the United States would also result in essential allies within the region to which Trump maintains good relationships-not only Al-Sissi and Jordan's King Abdullah II, but in addition the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey that each one support the Palestinian thing.
This may make the efforts tougher to barter a historical agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relationships, which Trump tried in his previous term and is anticipated to conclude in his current.
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