Trump makes ‘vulgar’ imperialist remarks instead of working on political settlement in Gaza
Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says that Trump’s comments about the US taking over Gaza are “a very sick joke at this point in time”.
“When you see this genocidal war and the impacts it has left on the Palestinian people, you would assume at this moment of the ceasefire the focus would be on sustaining the ceasefire, ending the war and creating a political path for a political settlement to preserve Palestinians’ dignity and rights,” he said.
Instead, “we see this warmongering and this new, vulgar and inhumane imperialism, disregard of the international law, everything we were brought up believing in”, Qarmout added.
He also said that Trump’s remarks should be taken seriously, but “he has a history of threatening and bullying around and proposing bad, crazy ideas but they failed in many contexts”.
“Trump proposed a deal of the century [to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his first term in office], which did not see the light,” Qarmout said.
Ex-Irish diplomat says Trump’s Gaza remarks show ‘moral vacuum’ in the White House
Former Irish diplomat Bobby McDonough has told Al Jazeera that Trump’s comments reveal a “moral vacuum” in the White House and warned against dismissing them as mere rhetoric.
McDonough stressed Ireland’s support for a two-state solution, adding that Israel has “zero legal, moral, historical, biblical rights” to Palestinian land.
He said Trump’s stance harms US global standing and efforts to normalise Israel-Arab ties, and he hoped it would not disrupt ceasefire talks.
Senior US administration members held ‘their heads in their hands’ during Trump’s announcement
The White House did not seem to care about the backlash, because not only did it not prepare international leaders for this announcement, but, in fact, we are hearing that members of the administration and even some cabinet members, as well as senior members of the Capitol Hill, did not know about this announcement in advance.
In fact, there were members who were seated in the East Room of the White House, listening to this for the first time in real-time, putting their heads in their hands in shock and amazement as they heard this proposal being revealed.
This is the most radical proposal that has been put forward since George W Bush invaded Iraq in 2003. We know that Palestinians don’t want to leave. We know that Saudi Arabia, a top US ally, is opposed to this.
When it comes to the US president saying he will not rule out using US troops to implement this plan, this has been called “problematic” to “absurd” by senior members of both the Republicans and the Democrats on Capitol Hill.
‘We are going nowhere’: Gaza residents react to Trump’s plan
As condemnations flood in over Trump’s proposal to push Palestinians out of Gaza and have the US take control, Palestinians in the enclave are responding with defiance.
“We will not leave our areas, we will not allow a second Nakba,” Um Tamer, a 65-year-old mother of six in Gaza City, told the Reuters news agency. “We have brought our kids up teaching them that they can’t leave their home and they can’t allow a second Nakba.”
“[Trump] is crazy,” she added. “We didn’t leave Gaza under the bombardment and the starvation, how does he intend to eject us? We are going nowhere.”
Samir Abu Basel, a father-of-five who is also in Gaza City, told Reuters that “Trump can go to hell, with his ideas, with his money, and with his beliefs”.
“We are going nowhere,” he reiterated. “We are not some of his assets.”
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