Trump's plan for Gaza slammed

Palestinian Americans call it ethnic cleansing

By: Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Palestinian Americans slammed President Donald Trump's proposal to expel residents of Gaza to other Arab nations and have the U.S. take control of the area, saying it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
..... Trump called for Palestinians from Gaza to be resettled in Jordan and Egypt, so the United States can redevelop the areas as a"Rivera of the Middle-East" after Israel's military operation left the coastal strip largely infuins during 15 months of war.
..... On Wednesday, [02/05/2025] amid backlash over his comments, the White House said Trump only wants to see Palestinians who live in Gaza "temporarily relocated." Arab and Palestinian leaders believe that's both untrue and unacceptable.
..... "This is not a plan for rebuilding Gaza - it is plan to erase it," the Clifton- [NJ] based Palestinian American Community Center said in a statement. "Trump's so-called 'development' agenda is nothing more than a smokescreen for settler expansion and permanent Israeli control over Palestinian land."
..... The Palestinian center called Trump's proposal an "outright endorsement of ethnic cleansing disguised as reconstruction." The sentiment was echoed by other groups like the American-Arab, Anti-discrimination Committee, which said Trump's rhetoric "flouts every principle of justice and dignity and defies international law and human rights."
..... "This operational also inflame regional tensions, jeopardize countless lives, and destroy any path to peace or stability," the advocacy group started.
..... Trump said the people of Gaza"live like hell" and described the area as a "demotion site," calling to"clean out the whole thing." The president repeatedly claimed that Gazans do not want to live there."
..... "Gaza is not place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and i believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative," trump told reporters on Tuesday. [02/04/2025]
..... Palestinian Americans say Trump is flat-out wrong and that families in Gaza have a strong desire to stay and to rebuild. tier resolve, they say, is deepened by their painful history of forced displacement that began wit the establishment of Israel in 1948 and has continued over decades.

"We are not leaving"

..... Ahmed Alhussaina of Careret [NJ] knows that the situation in Gaza is dire. he was living in Gaza and teaching business administration at the now-destroyed Israa University when the war started. A U.S. citizen, Alhussaina fled in November 2023 and moved back to New Jersey.
..... His brother returned home to northern Gaza after a ceasefire two weeks ago and found the building only partially standing. around his home, buildings lie in rubble, and clean water, electricity and gas remain scarce.
..... Still Alhussaina insisted his family does not want to leave.
..... "You still have to go back and start rebuilding and try at least to survive," he said. "We're not going to leave the land. that's what they want."
..... "A lot of my family in Egypt is waiting for the border to reopen, they want to go back," Alhussaina added. "People are just getting ready, even if it;s rubble. We want to make a tent on top of the rubble."
..... It seemed to him that trump was reveling over a real estate opportunity without regard for the humanity of the people who live there. "The U.S. should just leave us alone," Alussaina said. "don't take sides. Trump thinking he is going to get people out of Gaza and build it for other people and make it a Riviera" - it's stupid.
..... Trump was talking about expelling people when they haven't even had the chance to find and bury the remains of loved ones still under collapsed buildings, he added. Alhussaina's nieces and nephew are among the missing.
..... Shier resolve to stay in Gaza comes form experience. Alussania's grandparents became refugees during the 1948 "Nakba," meaning catastrophe, when 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and bared from returning.
..... "Everybody learned the lesson from 1948," he said. "We made a mistake thinking we are going to go back in a few days or so. That's what they told us. They knew now that if they leave, they are not going to come back. We are not going to give the land to them. they can do whatever they want We are not leaving..

Politicians divided

..... Trump's comments about taking over Gaza came at a White House press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an arrest warrant for the international Criminal court for war crimes in Gaza. World leaders and human rights groups say it would flout international law and inflame regional tensions.
..... The United States, Trump's vision for Gaza divided politicians.
..... Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday [02/05/2025] said Trump was "taking bold, decision action to try to secure the peace of that region" and that House GOP would stand with Trump.
..... But several Republicans expressed concern about Trump's suggestion to use U.S. troops and funds for Gaza reconstruction, saying another foreign entanglement would defy his "America First" campaign promise.
..... Many Democrats blasted the idea, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who said it was "dangerous," and senator Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, who called it a "bad, sick joke." Others said the plan could rankle fragile relationship with other Middle Eastern partners or likened to to "ethnic cleansing."
..... In New Jersey, Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from Mercer County, criticized the proposal on social media. "bush and Cheney wanted the US to control Iraq so oil executives could get richer," she wrote on X. "Now Trump wants the US to control Gaza so his wealthy donors who run real estate companies can get richer Trump corruption on display."
..... Salaheddin Mustafa, a community leader and outreach coordinator at the Islamic center of Passaic County, slammed New Jersey's other elected representatives for failing to speak out.
..... "They largely remain silent or will put out statements that are almost meaningless," Mustafa said. Will anyone have courage to say that what President Trump just said and just advocated for is a war crime? Will anyone in our federal delegation have the courage to call it what it is?"
..... Silence helped to fuel the devastation today [02/04/2025] in Gaza that Trump describes as a "pure demolitions site," Mustafa added.
..... "They knew Israel was trying to make it uninhabitable,' he said. "That was the goal, and we gave them the weaponry to make that happen. What's the logical next step. If it's uninhabitable?"
..... At the Palestinian American Community Center, leaders also said the Trump proposal was a continuation of a one-sided U.S. policy. "trump's expansionist vision for Gaza is not new, nor is it uprising," they wrote. "It is the next phase in a long-standing Western project of domination in the region. History has shown that despite massacres, displacement and occupation, Palestinians continue to resist. No amount of bombing forced displacement or colonial 'development ' will erase the Palestinian people from their land."

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