FAQ
A gaza strip without Palestinians and owned by the United States: A statement by US President Trump is excited by the region. What did Trump say – and why is the criticism of it so wide?
What did Trump propose?
President Donald Trump's press conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was about six minutes when Trump made a surprising proposal on Tuesday. Trump encouraged the people living in the Gaza Strip to one or more Arab states and rebuild the area – without Palestinians. The Gaza Strip is taken possession of the USA and thus counteracts a blooming future, Trump said in his own way of owning him – namely as “Riviera of the Middle East”.
To do this, 1.8 million Palestinians would have to leave their home region, calculates Trump – but it is below the actual number of residents of the Gaza Strip, which is estimated with around two milllions. Trump left open whether they can come back in his plan after a reconstruction. He does not expect the Palestinians to return after the resettlement, he said – for them Gaza was “hell”. However, this should rather describe the present in the completely destroyed coastal strip than the future. His statement remained as vague, later “many people” live in the region – “Palestinians too”.
It is also unclear what status the area should have according to Trump's plans in the future – whether it should be struck or managed in a different way or should even be added to the USA.
Who owns the Gaza Strip?
The limits of a Palestinian state are mentioned in Resolution 181 of the UN General Assembly of November 29, 1947. Today's Gaza Strip is part of a state of Palestine, which, according to the resolution, should include further areas. This never happened – several wars have changed borders and responsibilities since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.
After the first Middle East War in 1948, Egypt managed the coastal strip militarily. In the six -day war in 1967, Israel conquered the Gaza Strip. In 1994 Israel and the Palestinians concluded several peace agreements, including the Gaza Jericho Agreement. It stated that the Palestinians received administrative autonomy for the first time in a large part of the Gaza Strip.
In 2005 Israel pulled back from the Gaza Strip and cleared all 21 Israeli settlements. Israel is at the point of view that the crew of the coastal strip ended. However, the United Nations considered it further as an occupied area, including because Israel controls all access.
The Palestinians claim the Gaza Strip together with the West Bank and East Jerusalem as the area of a future state of its own. In fact, the Palestinian areas have been divided since 2007 at the latest. In 2006, the Fatah organization of the Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas lost the parliamentary election against the rival Hamas, whereupon the power struggle between the two groups continued to escalate. The Fatah kept the upper hand in the West Bank. The radical Islamic Hamas, on the other hand, tore the power in the Gaza Strip in 2007. Israel then tightened a blockade of the area that was supported by Egypt.
Is a relocation legally conceivable?
The legal situation is clear on this question: A compulsory resettlement of the residents of the Gaza Strip is not compatible with international law. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, clearly formulates it: “Every forced relocation or displacement of people from occupied areas is strictly prohibited.”
Rule 129 of international international habits is relevant. In the legal database of the International Committee of the Red Cross (IKRK) there are two texts that say:
The parties involved in an international armed conflict may not be deleted or forced to carry out the civilian population of an occupied area, in their entirety or in part, unless this is necessary with regard to the security of the affected civilians or for mandatory military reasons.
How much is the Gaza strip destroyed?
After evaluating the UN satellite center Unosate from December, around 69 percent of the buildings in the Gaza Strip are destroyed or damaged. It alone lists a good 60,000 destroyed and a good 20,000 heavily damaged buildings. After a UN report from January, there are 50 million tons of debris alone.
The UN Nothilfebüro Ocha reports that 90 percent of the residents of the Gaza Strip were expelled from their houses and settlements during the war, most of the – several times – within the country. Trump's Middle East sent Steve Witkoff got an idea of the location in the region at the end of January. He then told Axios' news page that a reconstruction of the coastal strip could take ten to 15 years.
Have you ever been such ideas?
Trump is not the first to spread such suggestions, but undoubtedly the most highly ranking politician. The Israeli Minister of Secret Service Gila Gamliel proposed in 2023 after Hamas's attack in Jerusalem Post to promote the “voluntary resettlement” of the Palestinians from the coastal area to other countries. The project should be supported by the international community to help the residents of the Gaza Strip “to build a new life in their new host countries”.
Trump himself had expressed similar ideas before the meeting. At the end of January, he said after reporting journalists on board the presidential machine Air Force One, the Gaza strip was a demolition fallen and he wanted to absorb people and Jordan – temporarily or permanently. The proposal was immediately rejected by the states concerned – which Trump did not prevent Trump from getting new attention to him.
As early as the 1990s, after the beginning of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, there were efforts to transform the Gaza strip into an area that is also attractive for tourism. Various projects were created, including a water inconvenient park. However, the violent takeover of the coastal strip by Islamist Hamas in 2007 and the tightening of an Israeli blockade of the area, which was supported by Egypt, put an end to such experiments.
How do the Palestinians react?
The rejection of Hamas and Fatah is unanimous. Trump accused the Islamist Hamas, whose massacre in Israel triggered the devastating war on October 7, 2023. His statements are the undisguised attempt to refuse their inalienable national rights to the Palestinians, said Isat Al-Rischk, member of the Hamas Politburos.
The Palestinian President Abbas accused Trump a serious violation of international law according to the Haaretz newspaper. There will be no peace and no stability in the region unless a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital within the borders of June 4, 1967 was founded on the basis of the two-states solution, said Abbas.
What would a resettlement for the Arab neighboring countries mean?
A relocation would probably affect Jordan and Egypt, especially. Jordan is already one of the countries with the highest number of refugees per inhabitant worldwide. A large Palestinian community has been living there for decades. A forced expulsion from the Gaza Strip could destabilize the domestic balance and further strengthen the influence of the Palestinians in the country – a scenario that could increase tensions with the local population and the monarchy.
As a state, Egypt is more stable than Jordan and has a thin-populated region with the Sinai Peninsula, which is always mentioned as a possible recording region for Palestinians. But Islamist groups are also active on the Sinai, which the Egyptian security organs repeatedly pose problems. In addition, the government fears that a large number of refugees could further tighten the tense economic and social situation.
Experts warn that Trump's plans could destabilize two of the most stable countries in the Middle East. However, the United States could consider governments considerably with a stop financial support. Egypt, for example, receives around $ 1.3 billion military aid annually. Jordan is also to get hundreds of US dollars every year by 2026, which is a significant part of the state budget. But what will become of it is already unclear after the Stop of the U.S. Aid.
Jordan's king Abdullah immediately rejected the Trump advance. Rather, the expansion of Israeli settlements must be stopped, he says with a view of the West Bank.
How do other Arab states react?
The Arab states fundamentally reject a resettlement of the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The reaction of the regional power of Saudi Arabia is particularly important. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that all attempts were made to drive the Palestinians away from their country. In addition, the country excludes the normalization of relationships with Israel as long as there is no Palestinian state. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has “clearly and expressly” confirmed the kingdom's attitude on this question. There is no room for interpretations. You also reject all attempts to drive the Palestinians away from their country.
Until the beginning of the Gaza War in October 2023, the United States arranged between Israel and Saudi Arabia with the aim of normalizing relationships. The government in Riad then broke off the talks with reference to the Israeli approach in the Gaza Strip. President Trump has great importance to the relationship with the oil-rich country and already undertook his first trip abroad to Saudi Arabia in 2017. This year, too, the country should be part of its first trip abroad.
Officially, the Arab countries have always called for the establishment of their own Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia, but also other countries in the region, should therefore avoid the impression that they supported a policy that could be interpreted as the expulsion of the Palestinians. The countries of the region also fear that such a resettlement would cement Israeli control over the Gaza Strip and legitimize permanent displacement. Above all, the Gulf States, which, despite all the statements of solidarity, have so far only taken on a limited responsibility in the form of financial support for the Palestinian population, could have been under increased pressure to explain.
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