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SvennoJ on 04 February 2025
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UN ambassador says Palestinians want to return to family’s original homes

Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour has said that, instead of being expelled from Gaza into nearby countries, the enclave’s residents should be able to return to their family’s original homes in what is today Israel.

Much of Gaza’s population are descendants of Palestinians who lived in towns and cities that were ethnically cleansed during Israel’s founding and barred from returning home.

“For those who want to send the Palestinian people to a ‘nice place’, allow them to go back to their original homes in what is now Israel,” said Mansour. “The Palestinian people want to rebuild Gaza because this is where we belong,” he added.


 

Protesters chant ‘Free Palestine’ outside of White House


A crowd of pro-Palestine demonstrators gather outside of the White House during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC on February 4

Israeli settlers hoping to expand their reach further under Trump

Israel’s population of settlers are hopeful that they will be able to extend their control over the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during Trump’s second term.

“I think you’re going to see an explosion of the construction here,” Baruch Gordon, the director of a group that publishes data on the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, told The Associated Press news agency.

“This is our biblical heartland,” he added.

For decades, Israeli settlers have built illegal communities on land confiscated from Palestinians in defiance of international law and carried out violent attacks and other forms of harassment.

Several prominent rights groups have accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.