[WASHINGTON D.C., FEBRUARY 4, 2025] – Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) forcefully condemns President Donald Trump’s recent remarks advocating for the forced removal of Palestinians from Gaza, calling them a blatant endorsement of ethnic cleansing. Trump’s statement that Palestinians “have no alternative right now” but to leave their homeland, coupled with his suggestion to “find the right piece of land” to resettle them, mirrors the history of the Palestinian story of forced displacement and is an egregious violation of international law. 

The remarks, made just before and during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, expose the dangerous alignment of U.S. foreign policy with Israeli war crimes and the continued subjugation of the Palestinian people. 

Trump’s Call for Forced Expulsion is Ethnic Cleansing!

Saying that Palestinians should leave Gaza due to Israeli destruction, rather than advocating for reconstruction and justice, echoes the darkest chapters of Palestinian history and Western colonialism. The President’s comments deliberately ignore the catastrophic reality Israel has inflicted on Gaza, where relentless bombing campaigns have killed and wounded an estimated minimum of 186,000 Palestinians, including more than 17,000 children, and displaced more than 1.9 million people, more than 90% of Gaza’s population—all completely because of U.S. military support and political enablement. 

International law is clear: the forced transfer of a civilian population under occupation is a war crime. The Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 49) prohibits an occupying power from deporting or transferring the population of an occupied territory. Trump’s rhetoric, therefore, is not just inflammatory—it is a direct call for war crimes that should disqualify him from any leadership role. 

Palestinians have endured decades of forced displacement since the Nakba (1948), when Zionist militias expelled over 750,000 Palestinians to establish the state of Israel. Many of those in Gaza are already internally displaced, having been pushed from their villages and towns during the original ethnic cleansings of 1948 and 1967. Today, Trump’s language serves to justify another Nakba, this time under the guise of “humanitarian resettlement.” 

Furthermore, Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza, even during this period of a “so-called ceasefire” is nothing but a cataclysmic end to the ongoing human rights atrocity that is the Gaza Genocide. The push to expel Palestinians is not about their safety—it is about Israel completing its ethnic cleansing agenda with U.S. complicity. 

Trump’s suggestion that Palestinians should be forcibly relocated to Jordan or Egypt is not only offensive but also impractical. Both nations have already rejected this proposal, recognizing the dangerous precedent it sets for continued Israeli expansionism and displacement. The only just solution is an immediate end to Israel’s occupation, apartheid policies, and military aggression against the Palestinians and its neighbors. 

The forced displacement and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians also pose an enormous risk to the Middle East. According to reporting by the Middle East Eye, Jordan is ready to declare war on Israel in the event that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempts to forcibly expel Palestinians into its territory. Expelling Palestinians from their homeland is not only a violation of human rights and international law, but it stands to turn the Middle East into a further destabilized region—something that Israel has already done over the past year and a half, through its genocide in Gaza and conflicts with Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria. 

AJP Action calls on all elected officials to:

1. Publicly reject Trump’s remarks and any policies promoting ethnic cleansing.
2. Support the immediate restoration of U.S. funding to UNRWA, USAID programs, and the UN Human Rights Council, and support funding to aid displaced Palestinians and rebuild Gaza.
3. Condition military aid to Israel to prevent further war crimes and human rights abuses.

Trump’s comments must not be dismissed as mere rhetoric. They reflect a deeply entrenched policy of U.S. support for Israel’s crimes. If we do not act now, history will judge our silence as complicity in one of the gravest human rights violations of our time. 

AJP Action stands with the Palestinian people in their right to remain on their land, resist occupation, and demand justice. We urge all who value human rights to speak out and take action against these dangerous and illegal proposals. 

Israel destroyed Gaza and carried out a brutal genocide using American money, weapons, and diplomatic cover. It did so while the people of Gaza were trapped with no escape or refuge. The United States has a legal and moral obligation to rebuild Gaza and protect its people by forcing Israel to allow the unconditional flow of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials. If Trump truly sympathizes with the people of Gaza, he must pressure Netanyahu to abandon his repeated threats to resume the genocidal war. 

In solidarity, 

Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid 

Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization advocating for legislation supporting the human rights of the Palestinian people and endorsing candidates for office who support those rights.