Feb 5th, 2025 –
A Response to President Trump’s Remarks Regarding the Gaza Strip
We resoundingly condemn the plans shared by President Donald Trump yesterday to forcibly transfer two million people out of the Gaza Strip, and to assert US control over the enclave. These statements were nothing less than an explicit call for ethnic cleansing, and exhibit a fundamental disrespect for the humanity of everyone in the region, as well as a gross flouting of international law. Trump’s plans are illegal, inhumane, and must not be allowed to come to fruition in any form.
It also must be noted that while the president’s remarks were a new low in their explicit nature, the call for forced expulsion of Gaza civilians has been taken up for months by members of the Israeli government using the euphemistic language of “humanitarian population solutions…beyond the borders of Eretz Yisrael,” including by Cabinet Ministers Betzalel Smotrich, Miki Zohar, May Golan, Amichai Chikli, and many others – as recently as this week.
Last night, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu himself embraced this expulsion proposal, saying that Trump’s plan could “change history,” and was “worthwhile really pursuing.” We are saddened but not surprised to see that the Israeli far right is celebrating Trump’s statement: Netanyahu’s primary aim, to keep his coalition together, has been fulfilled. Even more concerning is the response from key centrist Israeli electeds and thought leaders, who appear to be also tacitly endorsing Trump’s remarks.
It is incumbent upon American and Israeli elected officials, as well as the wider international community, to prevent any further war crimes or atrocities in the region, and to prevent the enactment of any of these stated plans. Lasting security and a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians can only be achieved with the acknowledgement of the right to self-determination for both peoples in the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, and Partners has long called for the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. There cannot be any sort of lasting peace through ethnic cleansing and self-serving real estate deals.
Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson
Executive Director, Partners for Progressive Israel
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