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Author: Simon Mabon, Professor of International Relations, Lancaster University
Original article: https://theconversation.com/what-trumps-proposal-to-take-over-gaza-could-mean-for-arab-israeli-relations-249184
US president Donald Trump has made the extraordinary suggestion that the US should seize control of the Gaza Strip and permanently remove its Palestinian inhabitants. Speaking to the press at the White House alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the US would “own [Gaza] and be responsible”.
When pushed on the practicalities of such a move, Trump replied that the US would “do what is necessary” and develop the land into the “riviera of the Middle East”. “It’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of,” he said.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, later wrote in a post on X: “The United States stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again. Our pursuit is one of lasting peace in the region for all people.”
Trump’s declaration has been celebrated by many on the Israeli right, who have long supported the removal of Palestinian residents from Gaza. But it has also been met with anger across the Arab world and beyond.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, called Trump’s proposal “incitement to commit forced displacement”. Some politicians have described his comments as an endorsement of ethnic cleansing.
Trump first uttered his desire to “clean out” Gaza a week before this announcement. This prompted foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt to sign a statement affirming their rejection of efforts to “compromise Palestinians’ unalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, or evictions or annex of land or through vacating the land from its owners”.
The statement, made by a group of states not generally known for operating in a unified manner, ended by congratulating Rubio on his appointment. But the message to the Trump administration was clear: the two-state solution is the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump’s latest proclamations will deepen schisms across the region between Israel and its Arab neighbours, and prompt questions about the future role of the US in the Middle East.
Egypt and Jordan’s response
Any attempt by Washington to seize control of Gaza, which would almost certainly involve military force, would evoke parallels with 1948 and what is known in Arabic as the nakba, or “the catastrophe”.
At that time, many Palestinians had to flee their land in what is now Israel, setting in motion decades of conflict between Israel and neighbouring Arab states. Acts of terrorism in the intervening years have cost thousands of lives on all sides.
Trump’s call for Arab states to take in Palestinians from Gaza – who he says have no alternative but to abandon the coastal strip – ignores the strength of feeling across the world about the Palestinian issue.
Egypt, for example, has long rejected the idea of housing Gaza’s population, amid growing socio-economic pressures and longstanding fears of Islamist violence. And Jordan has been steadfast in its desire not to host more Palestinians, having already provided refuge for people fleeing Palestine in 1948 and 1967. It has, more recently, also become the main destination for refugees from Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
On February 5, Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, met with the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, in Cairo. According to an Egyptian foreign ministry statement, the pair jointly rejected Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza.
Egypt and Jordan have both signed peace deals with Israel. But relations have not always been cordial, and the destruction of Gaza has exacerbated these tensions. Trump’s latest comments, as well as those from the Israeli right, will only worsen the situation.
Mohamed Hossam / EPA
Relations with Saudi Arabia
During Trump’s first term, his administration secured a significant diplomatic victory by brokering the Abraham accords. The accords, all of which were signed in the latter half of 2020, normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and later Morocco.
The signatories to the Abraham accords have been conspicuously quiet about Israel’s actions in Gaza. And it remains to be seen what effect Trump’s proposed Gaza takeover could have on relations between these states. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco have, at the time of writing, not yet announced their response.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has remained the jewel in the diplomatic crown seemingly out of reach both for the Trump administration and that of his successor, Joe Biden. The kingdom occupies a prominent place within the Arab and Muslim world by virtue of its custodianship of the two holy mosques of Mecca and Medina.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, has taken an increasingly hard line on normalisation with Israel in recent months, suggesting that such a deal would not be possible without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In a statement released on February 5, the Saudi foreign ministry said it rejected “any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land”. And bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom’s position that it would not establish ties with Israel without a Palestinian state.
During his press conference, Trump suggested that Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian homeland. But statements from Saudi officials since then contradict this narrative and point to increasingly divergent views on Gaza – and indeed, the future of Palestine – between Riyadh and Washington.
Fundamentally, Trump’s remarks are the latest in a long line of bombastic diplomatic flourishes that appear designed to provoke as much as to enact policy. But in this case, even rhetorical provocations will have consequences for already strained relations between Israel and the wider Arab world.