In controversial statements, US President Donald Trump announced his commitment to “buying and owning Gaza,” considering that allowing Palestinians to return to the Strip would be a “big mistake.”
In his remarks to reporters aboard the presidential plane, Trump emphasised that Gaza is “completely destroyed” and that all of its original residents will not be present before it is completely demolished and rebuilt in a different manner.
According to Trump, the future of Gaza will be a “huge real estate project” that the United States will eventually own, with wealthy Arab nations helping to finance the reconstruction. This suggests that the displaced people of Gaza may be relocated to other areas, possibly even other countries.
The US President, who anticipates that the US will have “long-term ownership” in the Palestinian Strip, did not rule out the use of US forces to guarantee the execution of his plan.
According to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, specifically Article 49 of the Fourth Convention, which forbids the forcible removal of civilians from their occupied territories, the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza—which Trump referenced in passing as a fait accompli—is, in fact, a war crime.
The International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute also declares population transfers or deportations to be crimes against humanity.
It is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law to discuss the total displacement of Gaza’s population, regardless of whether this is part of an Israeli or American plan.
Trump’s claims that Gaza is a “huge real estate project” are indicative of a colonial mindset that seeks to turn the suffering of the Palestinian people into a lucrative venture for affluent nations.
International law, however, affirms that Palestinian land cannot be sold and that no state may dispose of it apart from its citizens. Furthermore, the attempt to impose American guardianship over the Gaza Strip under the guise of “reconstruction” is in direct opposition to UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 of 1960 on decolonisation, which explicitly states the right of peoples to self-determination.
Trump’s declaration that the US would “own Gaza very slowly” before letting other nations develop some of it raises serious concerns about the legitimacy of the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people. Rather than promoting the Palestinians’ right to rebuild their homeland on their own, projects that strengthen foreign hegemony and make the future of the Palestinian sector contingent on the will of the major powers are being proposed.
These declarations also demonstrate a more advanced stage of efforts to end the Palestinian cause by means of forced land seizures and ethnic cleansing.
Given this fact, the international community—represented by the UN and the International Criminal Court—must act to hold those responsible for the mass exodus and aggression against Gaza accountable. Human rights groups must also exert pressure to stop any project that replicates colonial models from being imposed under fictitious names like “development and reconstruction.”
Last but not least, Gaza cannot be viewed as a commodity to be bought and sold, and the destiny of the Palestinian people cannot be determined by the calculations of powerful nations. No matter how many liquidation projects are undertaken, the Palestinian people’s right to their land will not be compromised because national rights are unassailable.
