In a blatant endorsement of ethnic cleansing, President Donald Trump called for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza Tuesday afternoon, urging Jordan and Egypt to absorb them as Israel continues its relentless bombardment of the besieged enclave.
Speaking to reporters, Trump made it clear that he does not see a future for Palestinians in their own homeland, declaring that they “have no alternative” but to leave because Gaza has been reduced to “a big pile of rubble.”
Instead of advocating for reconstruction or an end to Israel’s brutal campaign, Trump suggested that Palestinians should simply be given land elsewhere, reinforcing a long-standing colonialist playbook that erases indigenous people from their homes.
“If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure,” Trump said, as if solving mass displacement were a mere real estate project. He went on to dismiss any possibility of Palestinians returning to Gaza, emphasizing that their homeland is now a “pure demolition site.”
Ethnic cleansing is defined as the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory, often through violence or coercion.
Trump’s remarks were made just before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, the first between Trump and a foreign leader since his return to power.
For Palestinians, Trump’s proposal amounts to a second Nakba, a repeat of the mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing carried out by Zionist militias in 1948 that created the Palestinian refugee crisis.
Critics say the idea of permanently displacing Palestinians under the guise of a “solution” follows Israel’s decades-long strategy of erasing Palestinian identity and claims to their land.
The international community has already condemned Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, with the International Court of Justice recently ruling that Israel must take measures to prevent acts of genocide.
Trump’s endorsement of mass displacement flies in the face of this ruling, further emboldening Israel’s apartheid policies and attempts to empty Gaza of its native population.
Neither Jordan nor Egypt have expressed willingness to take in large numbers of Palestinians, knowing that doing so would fulfill Israel’s long-standing goal of making Gaza uninhabitable and permanently dispossessing its people.
Moreover, Gazans themselves have made it clear that they will not abandon their homeland, even in the face of unimaginable destruction and suffering.
Trump’s position is not an outlier—it is a continuation of U.S. imperial policy that has long supported Israeli settler-colonialism at the expense of Palestinian lives.
His administration’s previous moves, including the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and the recognition of illegal Israeli settlements, demonstrated a complete disregard for Palestinian sovereignty. Now, his return to power brings with it an even more overt push for ethnic cleansing, cloaked in the language of “humanitarian relocation.”
As Netanyahu faces increasing political pressure to prolong the war and resist any meaningful ceasefire, Trump’s alignment with him signals that the U.S. will continue to bankroll Israel’s military aggression while abandoning any pretense of neutrality.
For Palestinians, this is yet another reminder that their struggle for liberation will not be won through diplomacy with a system that seeks their erasure, but through steadfast resistance against colonial oppression.
