[President Donald Trump indicated Saturday that he had spoken with the king of Jordan about potentially building housing and moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, a remarkable proposal from a sitting US president.
Trump said he asked Jordan’s Abdullah II, a key US partner in the region, to take in more Palestinians in a Saturday phone call. Jordan’s state news agency, Petra, reported the call with Trump, but made no mention of relocating Palestinians. The kingdom is already home to more than 2.39 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the UN.
Trump said he would like both Jordan and Egypt – which borders the battered enclave – to house people, and that he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the matter Sunday.
The president, a former property developer, said the potential housing “could be temporary” or “could be long term.”
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Sunday statement that it rejects any forced displacement of Palestinians. The ministry did not specifically mention Trump, but reiterated Egypt’s position against “the displacement of Palestinians from their land through forced eviction.”
Jordan is committed to “ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land,” its minister of foreign affairs said in a statement Sunday. “Our refusal of displacement is a steadfast position that will not change,” Ayman Safadi said. “Jordan is for Jordanians, and Palestine is for Palestinians.”
Trump’s comments come 15 months into the war between Israel and Hamas, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble. Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed around 60% of buildings, including schools and hospitals, and around 92% of homes, according to the UN.
There has long been a fear in the region that Israel wants to push Palestinians out of Gaza into neighboring countries – a premise Israel rejects but one supported by far-right factions of its governing coalition.
Egypt’s President el-Sisi criticized Israel’s move to evacuate more than a million residents from northern Gaza in October, characterizing it as part of a larger plan to rid the entire area of Palestinians. King Abdullah also called the idea of more Palestinian refugees moving to Jordan or Egypt a “red line.”
The proposal has been met with strong opposition from Palestinians, with Hamas saying they “will not accept any proposals or solutions” from Trump on leaving their homeland, even if they are “seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction.”
The comments also appear to break with decades of US foreign policy, which has long emphasized a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Trump’s administration has taken several steps that have been seen as tilting the balance in favor of Israel, including rescinding sanctions against Israeli settlers deemed responsible for deadly violence in the occupied West Bank.
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