Tag: ethnic cleansing

Media Afraid to Call Ethnic Cleansing by Its Name

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said that the US will “take over the Gaza Strip” and “own” it for the “long-term” (AP, 2/5/25), and that its Palestinian inhabitants will be “permanently” exiled (AP, 2/4/25). Subsequently, when reporters asked Trump whether Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza under his plan, he said “no” (BBC, 2/10/25).

After Trump’s remarks, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Reuters, 2/5/25) said “it is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”

Navi Pillay (Politico, 2/9/25), chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said that

Trump is woefully ignorant of international law and the law of occupation. Forcible displacement of an occupied group is an international crime, and amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Human Rights Watch (2/5/25) said that, if Trump’s plan were implemented, it would “amount to an alarming escalation of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.”

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Israel Plans 1,000 New Settlement Homes as West Bank Raids Intensify

Israeli authorities are planning to expand a Jewish-only settlement in the West Bank by nearly 1,000 homes, a Tel Aviv-based peace group said Sunday as Israeli soldiers and settlers escalated attacks on Palestinians in the illegally occupied territory.

Peace Now said Israel’s Civil Administration has issued a new tender for the construction of 974 new housing units in Efrat, a Jewish-only colony located about 7.5 miles south of Jerusalem between Bethlehem and Hebron. The planned expansion will increase Efrat’s population of approximately 11,800 residents by 40% and geographically isolate Palestinian communities in the southern West Bank.

Emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to power, far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet have vowed to annex the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 in violation of international law.

On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that “the goal for 2025 is to demolish more than the Palestinians build in the West Bank,” according to Al Jazeera. This, following the largest Israeli seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank in decades last year.

“The Netanyahu government is operating on steroids to establish facts on the ground that will destroy the chance for peace and compromise,” said Peace Now, referring to the longtime Israeli practice of violating international law by colonizing and annexing Palestinian land to establish what one legal scholar has described as “de facto possession with the aim of attaining de jure possession.”

Peace Now continued: “It is now clear that military action alone will not bring a solution to the conflict or security to Israel, and that ultimately we will have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians. The Netanyahu government is harming Israeli interests and torpedoing the only solution that can bring us security and peace.”

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Trump Didn’t Invent the Gaza Ethnic Cleansing Plan. It’s Been US Policy Since 2007

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention from day one of his “revenge” attack on Gaza, launched 16 months ago, was either ethnic cleansing or genocide in Gaza.

His ally in genocide for the next 15 months was former US President Joe Biden. His ally in ethnic cleansing is current US President Donald Trump.

Biden provided the 2,000lb bombs for the genocide. Trump is reportedly providing an even larger munition – the 11-ton MOAB, or massive ordnance air blast bomb, with a mile-wide radius – to further incentivise the population’s exodus.

Biden claimed that Israel was helping the people of Gaza by “carpet bombing” the enclave – in his words – to “eradicate” Hamas. Trump claims he is helping the people of Gaza by “cleaning them out” – in his words – from the resulting “demolition site”.

Biden called the destruction of 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings “self defence”. Trump calls the imminent destruction of the remaining 30 percent “all hell breaking loose”.

Biden claimed to be “working tirelessly for a ceasefire” while encouraging Israel to continue the murder of children month after month.

Trump claims to have negotiated a ceasefire, even as he has turned a blind eye to Israel violating the terms of that ceasefire: by continuing to fire on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank; by refusing entry into Gaza of vital aid trucks; by allowing in almost none of the promised tents or mobile homes; by denying many hundreds of maimed Palestinians treatment abroad; by blocking the return of Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza; and by failing to engage with the second phase of the ceasefire negotiations.

Those Israeli violations, although widely reported by the media as Hamas “claims”, were confirmed to the New York Times by three Israeli officials and two mediators.

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Trump confirms Palestinians will have no right of return under Gaza takeover plan: ‘They’re going to have much better housing’

President Trump has confirmed that under his controversial development plan for the war-torn Gaza Strip, Palestinians would not be allowed to return to the Hamas-run enclave.

“No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing. Much better,” Trump told Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier in a clip from the weekend interview that aired Monday morning on “Fox & Friends.”

“In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable,” the president went on. “It would be years before it could happen.”

Last week, Trump revealed his aspirations for the US to “take over the Gaza Strip” and develop the coastal land to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East,” while indicating that “all” of its roughly 2 million current inhabitants would be pushed out to neighboring nations.

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‘Non-Negotiable’: Saudi Arabia Blasts Trump’s Gaza Takeover Plan

The international reaction to President Trump’s Tuesday declaration that the US will “take over” the Gaza Strip and that Palestinians would “love to leave” the largely destroyed enclave which has suffered in the midst of the Hamas-Israel war (though a fragile truce has held for a couple week) has been as expected. Various countries have issued condemnation, including predictably from the United Nations chief, given it smacks of ethnic cleansing of a historic territory, though few actual details have been defined in terms of how such a plan involving US troops would be executed.

Saudi Arabia has been one major US regional ally to react swiftly in condemnation. The Saudis have said Wednesday that Trump’s desired ‘normalization’ with Israel based on the Abraham Accords would definitely be off.

Riyadh said the Palestinians must be guaranteed an independent state if were to ever implement diplomatic relations with Israel. “The establishment of the Palestinian state is a firm, unwavering position,” the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said said on X.

“His Highness [Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman] has affirmed this position in a clear and explicit manner that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances.”

“His Highness stressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the Kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the statement continued. 

Needless to say, a permanent removal of Palestinians from Gaza would thwart such a possibility, and other Arab states which have already made peace with Israel might reverse their position, for example the UAE. The Saudis are making clear that this stance is ‘non-negotiable’ – and the reality is that mass displacement of Palestinians to neighboring states would likely collapse the Hamas truce, and halt the ongoing hostage/prisoner exchange.

Russia too is another major power condemning Trump’s Tuesday remarks, with top diplomat Sergei Lavrov arguing that this “culture of cancellation” is at work, suggesting that the US is seeking to ‘cancel’ Palestinian identity.

Lavrov said that UN National Security Council decisions were “were recognized by everyone without exception a month and a half ago as a necessary basis for actions to create a Palestinian state” and have “simply been canceled.”

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Ethnic Cleansing for ‘Gaza’s Riviera’?

During a press conference with PM Netanyahu on Tuesday evening, President Trump said the United States “will take over” the Gaza Strip. Around the world, observers were shocked. But the statement didn’t come out of the blue.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said during the conference. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.”

Asked to elaborate on his “takeover” comment and whether he was willing to send US troops to fill a security vacuum in Gaza, Trump did not rule it out. “We’re going to take over [Gaza] we’re going to develop it.” Even though Trump willing to bury the refugee agency UNRWA, he added: “I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East.”

Trump, a real estate tycoon himself, said he had studied the matter “closely, over a lot of months.” Gaza, he suggested, could become a “Riviera of the Middle East.”

In effect, the idea goes back to his son-in-law, a secret plan of an Israeli ministry, and a long-term effort at ethnic cleansing.

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‘We’ll Own It’: Trump Floats US Takeover of Gaza – After Ethnically Cleansing Palestinians

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will “take over” Gaza after emptying the embattled enclave of nearly all its native Palestinians, sparking a firestorm of criticism that included allegations of intent to commit ethnic cleansing.

Speaking during a press conference with fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump told reporters, “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.”

“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings – level it out and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” Trump continued.

“We’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something that the entire Middle East could be very proud of,” he said, evoking the proposals of varying seriousness to build Jewish-only beachfront communities over the ruins of Gaza.

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Bodybags From Gaza: Is the Second Marine Division Going to Palestine?

And Jesus said: “Where death is, there a gathering of vultures will be.”
~ Luke 17:37

My initial thoughts on one of this century’s most alarming and potentially consequential press conferences.

First and foremost:

Will American soldiers take part in deliberate crimes against humanity and come home in body bags for the benefit of Israel and Jared Kushner’s real estate developer friends?

Along with that question and the spectacle and significance of the President of the United States standing next to a wanted war criminal, President Trump offered three key policy announcements that may dictate US, Middle Eastern and world affairs for decades to come.

1. The President’s commitment to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in Gaza, his certainty that the ethnic cleansing will occur with the assistance of other nations, and his announcement that the US would take over Gaza – whatever that means* – ensures an end to the ceasefire and nascent peace process in Gaza.

How can Hamas and the Palestinians continue with the ceasefire and peace process after such statements? Of course, the US and Israel will blame Hamas and the Palestinians for a resumption of the violence. That will justify a return to the genocide and will satisfy both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s domestic political interests. It’s also a sure thing that the majority of the Western corporate press will willingly go along with that storyline.**

Furthermore, we need to note that the commitment of the United States to the ethnic cleansing of a population has many historical American precedents. None perhaps ever stated as boldly or brutally as President Trump did tonight.

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GAZA WILL BE REBUILT IN REGIONAL DEAL – Trump Says Israel Is Not Big Enough – Greater Israel Is Back On

President Trump reiterated his support for ‘Greater Israel’ yesterday, the concept of enlarging the geographic footprint of The Jewish State in the Middle East.

During an interview (video below), Trump talked about how small Israel was in comparison with the rest of the region, and how this was not a good thing.

Trump initially was reported to have resisted this development in Northern Gaza, as we reported, by allowing Gaza resident back to the area quickly, but this reservation seems to have gone by the wayside.

Trump has pushed back against Israeli demands for a war with Iran, including U.S. forces.

“It’s not our war,” the President declared.

President Trump has made very clear recently his desire to remove citizens from the Gaza Strip, and deport them to other nations like Egypt, Jordan, Albania, and Indonesia.

However, besides Albania, none of these nations are publicly open to the idea. Egypt and Jordan have been adamant against it. This is likely because would mean Hamas militants being installed in-country, in addition to the loss of Muslim street cred worldwide on the Palestinian issue.

Trump disclosed however that he will meet with Egyptian representatives this week. The U.S. gives a large amount of foreign aid to Egypt and this will likely be an offer Egypt can’t refuse.

Egypt is also amassing tanks and other military equipment in the Sinai Desert, a violation of the Camp David Accords, according to regional reports.

Trump is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week at The White House in his first foreign dignitary joint appearance in D.C. during his presidency.

Israel has acquired territory in Syria, and looks to be retaining it long term for security reasons. Lebanese territory is also up in the air, pending execution of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The West Bank is also in play.

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How the West Hides Its Gaza Genocide Guilt Behind Holocaust Day Remembrance

An entirely mendacious message lay at the heart of this week’s coverage by the BBC of the 80th Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations.

The British state broadcaster asserted throughout the day that the voices of the few remaining survivors of the Nazi extermination programme were still being heard “loud and clear” in western capitals. Those survivors – now in their 80s and 90s – warned that the genocide of a people must “never again” be allowed to take place.

As if to bolster its claim, the BBC showed western leaders – from Britain’s King Charles III, to Germany’s Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron of France – prominently in attendance at the main ceremony at Auschwitz, the most notorious of the death camps, where more than a million Jews, Roma and other stigmatised groups were burned in ovens.

As a counterpoint, the BBC highlighted the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been excluded from the ceremony for ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Steve Rosenberg, the corporation’s Moscow correspondent, underscored the irony that Russia, so visibly absent, was responsible for liberating Auschwitz on 27 January 1945 – the date that eventually came to be marked as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But hanging over the proceedings – and the coverage – was a heavy cloud of unreality. Had those western leaders really heard the message of “never again”? Had media outlets like the BBC?

There was an unwanted ghost at the commemorations. In fact, tens of thousands of ghosts.

Those ghosts included the children shredded by US-supplied bombs; the children who slowly suffocated under the rubble of their destroyed homes; the children whose bodies were left to rot, picked apart by feral dogs, because snipers shot at anyone who tried to retrieve them; the children who starved to death because they were seen as “human animals”, denied all food and water; the homeless babies who froze to death in plunging winter temperatures; and the premature babies left to die in their incubators after soldiers invaded hospitals and cut off the power.

Those ghosts were every bit as present at the ceremony as the mountains of shoes and suitcases – separated forever from their owners – lining the corridors of the Auschwitz museum.

Western leaders were determined to look back at the crimes of the past, but not to look at the crimes of the present – crimes they have been so deeply complicit in perpetrating.

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