President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians outside of Gaza won’t fly in Palestine or in neighboring Arab countries. First off, it has been “strongly rejected” by the Palestinian Presidency. “We emphasize that the Palestinian people will never abandon their land or their holy sites, and we will not allow the repetition of the catastrophes (Nakba) of 1948 and 1967. Our people will remain steadfast and will not leave their homeland,” the Presidency said in a statement, reported WAFA News Agency. The Presidency reaffirmed that the Palestinian people and their leadership categorically reject any policies or actions aimed at undermining the unity of the Palestinian land, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. “Any attempt to erode Palestinian, Arab, or international principles is rejected and entirely unacceptable.”
Egypt and the Arab League have also both rejected Trump’s suggestion. Cairo’s Foreign Ministry expressed Egypt’s “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land,” reported AFP. It rejects “any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether by settlement or annexation of land, or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term.”
According to the same report, the Arab League echoed Cairo’s statements, saying that “the forced displacement and eviction of people from their land can only be called ethnic cleansing. “Attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land, whether by displacement, annexation or settlement expansion, have been proven to fail in the past,” it said.
