Widespread concern over U.S. proposal to take over Gaza

Editor's note: Mohamed El-Bendary, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a Cairo-based freelance writer and independent researcher. His commentaries have appeared in major international media outlets. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to take over Gaza has sparked widespread outrage among Egyptians and people in other parts of the world, with many denouncing it as a recipe for further inflaming conflict and spreading chaos in the Middle East. Some have argued that the proposal is an endeavor to liquidate the Palestinian cause, while others have gone as far as proclaiming that former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was wrong to go to Israel and sign the 1978 Camp David Accords.  

In many ways, Trump is trying to complete what he proposed during his first term. In January 2020, he introduced a $50 billion "Peace to Prosperity" economic plan which advocated displacing Palestinians to Sinai in return for Cairo receiving more than $9 billion for its development. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's government strongly rejected the plan and cautioned that it could transform Egypt into a base for launching operations against Israel and cause clashes between the two countries.

The Palestinians' right for a state is facing an existential threat from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Forced displacement and expulsion of Gazans from their homes amount to ethnic cleansing and is a flagrant violation of United Nations agreements and Resolution 242. It raises fear of the eruption of another Nakba, or "catastrophe," which refers to the mass displacement and forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.  

Since 1948, Washington and Tel Aviv have mastered the craft of evading any attempt towards reaching a just and durable solution for the Palestinian people's right to statehood and have often presented "provisional" solutions instead which they can later evade. Since the 1990s – a decade during which I was residing in the United States – there have been endeavors aimed at redrawing the Middle East map to serve Israel's interests.  

Trump is an unpredictable man with a tsunami-like mindset. Since he assumed office, he has issued decrees that are causing world-wide disturbances – from abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development to withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, from halting funding for the UN Palestinian relief agency United Nations Relief and Works Agency to the forcible displacement of Palestinians, from the signing out of the 2015 landmark Paris Agreement for climate change to withdrawing from the World Health Organization. Adding more fuel to the fire is Trump's selection of a UN ambassador who claims that Israel has a "biblical right" to the West Bank.

Trump and some key members of his administration, think they can buy nations – the rights of indigenous people – with money, and if not with bombs, in violation of international law. Alas, capitalism has indeed reached its ugliest phase. The cost of Trump's new American "Golden Age" could be heavy and Arabs should fasten their seatbelts and prepare for the worst.

Washington decisionmakers seem to be shut off from this world. Since the war on Gaza erupted in October 2023, Egypt and Jordan have rejected any endeavor to displace Palestinians and abolish their right for statehood. Late last month, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stressed that deportation and displacement of Palestinians would be an act of injustice that Egypt "cannot take part in." In December 2023, Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan issued a joint statement in which they rebuffed any attempts by Netanyahu to displace Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt or Jordan.

Trump's mindset poses threats not just for the Palestinian people, but for peace and stability in the whole region. For many Egyptians, a forced displacement of Palestinians would mean the termination of the 1979 peace treaty which Egypt signed with Israel. Egyptians are asking: After Gaza, who's next?

The Middle East stands today in a convoluted situation and its stability is crucial for world peace. The atrocities that have been committed in Gaza sadly exhibit the failure of the international community to safeguard the rights of the Palestinian people to establish a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital based on the 1976 borders. By supporting Israeli aggression against Palestinians and overlooking their rights for statehood, the United States has lost the compass which guides its foreign policy in the Middle East.

With courage and determination, Gazans endured 15 months of war and genocide. They returned to ruined homes and are struggling with desperation to get their basic food needs and medicine. They deserve immediate assistance instead of threats of forced displacement.

Gaza should be cleaned, rebuilt and not colonialized. Any endeavor to liquidate the Palestinian people's rights for a state – to change the geographic or political stance of the Palestinian cause – will fail because Arabs are now standing vigilant that danger is on their doorstep.

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