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Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation
Because the second President Donald Trump took workplace almost two weeks in the past, he has signed dozens of govt orders that may damage each considered one of us at residence and additional isolate and erode the USA’ standing on the earth.
Instantly following his inauguration, President Trump signed an govt order that rescinded sanctions on extremist settlers within the West Financial institution who dedicated violent crimes in opposition to Palestinians. He additionally reversed former President Joe Biden’s restrictions on sending Israel these 2,000-pound bombs that may erase total neighborhoods, and moved to authorize transport one other billion {dollars} of weapons to the Israeli authorities.
Extra not too long ago, President Trump signed orders imposing a freeze on USAID funding worldwide, banning future funding of UNRWA — the one company able to delivering desperately wanted assist into Gaza — and withdrawing the U.S. from the UN Human Rights Council after accusing it of anti-Israel bias. He additionally issued an govt order cracking down on pro-Palestinian dissent and campus-based organizing in opposition to Israel’s genocide and threatened international college students on pupil visas with deportation.
All these actions — coupled with the president’s staunchly pro-Israel appointments in key positions — reaffirm the U.S.’s unconditional assist for Israel’s genocide and proceed to protect the apartheid state from accountability.
And Now for the Mom of All Surprises
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the primary chief of a international nation to be invited to the White Home since Trump took workplace. Previous to their February 4 assembly, White Home spokesperson Karoline Leavitt described Netanyahu’s go to as a “working assembly” and emphasised the president’s “continued assist for Israel, and making certain that brutal terrorists in that area have hell to pay.”
Throughout a press convention following this assembly, President Trump made a stunning assertion, asserting that “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we’ll do a job with it, too. We’ll personal it.”
Mere days after half a million displaced Palestinians made the arduous trek to return to their fully destroyed houses and neighborhoods in northern Gaza, President Trump recklessly advocated for the switch of two million Palestinians to neighboring nations — although, after all, to not Israel.
Requested by a reporter if his proposed plan may contain army pressure, he mentioned: “So far as Gaza is worried, we’ll do what is important. If it’s needed, we’ll do this.”
It’s not the primary time Trump’s internal circle has alluded to turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Center East.” Again on February 15, 2024, throughout an interview at Harvard College, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, praised the “very priceless” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property.” He steered that Israel ought to take away the Palestinians whereas it “cleans up” the Strip.
Trump claimed throughout his press convention that he had spoken to leaders within the area. “Everyone I’ve spoken to loves the thought of the USA proudly owning that piece of land,” he mentioned. However might or not it’s that he has solely spoken with one individual — his son-in-law — and is performing on his recommendation?
It’s not the primary time Trump’s internal circle has alluded to turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Center East.”
Anybody who noticed the video clips on social media exhibiting the enjoyment Palestinians felt upon returning home to northern Gaza regardless of its whole devastation — and placing up tents on high of the rubble of their destroyed houses — will perceive the which means of Palestinians’ attachment to their homeland. It might be naïve for anybody, together with President Trump, to imagine that Palestinians will voluntarily depart their homeland and resettle elsewhere.
Bassam Muhammad Abdulraouf, 29, expressed the generally held sentiment amongst Palestinians when he told NPR that he has no plans of leaving Gaza. He mentioned: “Even when there was a spot that was 1,000,000 instances higher than Gaza, and even when I might make certain that life there could be luxurious, I’d nonetheless be able to stay among the many rubble and in tents right here. If they arrive with the military, with army pressure, I’ll nonetheless by no means depart.”
Palestine belongs to its Indigenous individuals; it doesn’t belong to those that have stolen the land, forcibly displacing its inhabitants and are actually intent on ethnically cleaning those that remained.
U.S. Will “Personal” Gaza and Switch 2 Million Palestinians to Neighboring International locations
I can’t consider something extra ludicrous than this proposal, no matter whether or not this shock announcement is a manufactured distraction designed to overwhelm us or a negotiating tactic to additional the last word objective of a normalization settlement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. If that is the latter — a requirement Trump intends to later retract to make it seem as a concession — it could be a chapter out of Trump’s first time period, when he backed off his assist for Israel’s annexation of the West Financial institution in change for the UAE’s normalization with Israel.
U.S. annexation of Gaza is a massively irresponsible proposal. It’s not solely a violation of worldwide regulation and a conflict crime barred by the Geneva Conference, but when pursued can have unfavorable real-world ramifications. It’s a recipe for catastrophe and infinite violence that may have destabilizing results all through Southwest Asia. It is going to set off fierce opposition from the 146 nations — greater than three-quarters of UN member states — who’ve formally acknowledged the State of Palestine and have prolonged diplomatic relations. And it’ll give rise to even bigger anti-Israel and anti-American protests across the globe.
For starters, this proposal is certain to derail part two negotiations for a ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. It is going to give Netanyahu and his right-wing extremist authorities an excuse to renew its bombardment of Gaza and cease assist vehicles from getting into the enclave, persevering with the intentional hunger and ethnic cleaning of Palestinians from their lands.
And as if this isn’t sufficient, Trump additionally mentioned he would decide on Israel’s potential annexation of the West Financial institution inside the subsequent 4 weeks — a transfer favored by his appointee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, ultra-Zionist evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee. If Israel does formally annex the West Financial institution, it is going to be an enormous step towards its endgame of an “out-of-state” resolution, emptying the occupied territories of all Palestinians.
The time has now come for all remaining UN member states to return ahead and acknowledge the State of Palestine and assist the Worldwide Court docket of Justice’s ruling that declared that Israel’s occupation of the West Financial institution, Gaza and East Jerusalem — in addition to Israel’s system of apartheid — is illegal and should finish instantly.
World Leaders Reject President Trump’s Plan
Whereas the proposed Gaza tour will deviate from their “America First” agenda, Republicans unanimously praised Trump’s plan as “contemporary” and “pondering outdoors the field.” In a submit on X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio parroted President Trump’s assertion. He wrote: “As @POTUS shared right now, the USA stands prepared to guide and Make Gaza Lovely Once more.”
However aside from Republicans and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who praised Trump as “the best good friend Israel has ever had within the White Home,” President Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and ship 2 million Palestinians to stay in “peace and concord” elsewhere — successfully ethnically cleaning them from their homeland — was condemned by leaders world wide.
Within the U.S., Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wrote on social media: “Palestinians aren’t going wherever. This president can solely spew this fanatical bullshit due to bipartisan assist in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleaning. It’s time for my two-state resolution colleagues to talk up.”
Trump additionally mentioned he would decide on Israel’s potential annexation of the West Financial institution inside the subsequent 4 weeks.
In Israel, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert advised NPR: “Each social gathering concerned aside from Israel is totally in opposition to it.” And former Israeli Overseas Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami advised NPR: “It’s totally unrealistic, and it displays a complete lack of expertise of the historic technique of the place these Palestinians come from, what’s their collective id.”
Leaders all through the Arab world categorically rejected Trump’s plan, together with Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who issued a joint letter condemning the forcible switch of Palestinians out of Gaza as a menace to peace within the area, as reported within the New York Times.
On Tuesday, the Saudi international ministry issued a statement reiterating the nation’s “agency and unwavering” assist for the creation of a Palestinian state and that it could not set up diplomatic relations with Israel with out it. It mentioned: “Saudi Arabia additionally reiterates its beforehand introduced unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the reputable rights of the Palestinian individuals, whether or not by means of Israeli settlement insurance policies, the annexation of Palestinian lands, or makes an attempt to displace the Palestinian individuals from their land.”
Comparable opposition was swiftly expressed by European leaders, together with those that, along with the USA, are complicit within the Gaza genocide. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer mentioned that Palestinians “should be allowed residence. They should be allowed to rebuild, and we needs to be with them in that rebuild on the best way to a two-state resolution.” German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock said in an announcement that displacing Palestinians residents from Gaza could be “unacceptable and in opposition to worldwide regulation.” Reuters reported that the French international ministry issued an announcement saying that Paris “reiterates its opposition to any pressured displacement of the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza.”
Gaza Was Not Struck by a Pure Catastrophe; It Was Destroyed by U.S. Bombs and Israeli Airstrikes
Throughout his press convention, President Trump talked about Gaza as if it had skilled “dangerous luck” and was devastated by some pure catastrophe. He mentioned that Gaza has been a logo of loss of life and destruction for thus lengthy and has been “very unfortunate for a very long time.” He added: “Being in its presence has simply not been good. It shouldn’t undergo a technique of rebuilding and occupation by the identical folks that have stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a depressing existence there.”
“I don’t assume individuals needs to be going again to Gaza. I believe that Gaza has been very unfortunate for them. They’ve lived like hell.”
When requested if Palestinians could be allowed again into Gaza, he replied: “It might be my hope that we might do one thing very nice, actually good, the place they wouldn’t need to return,” including, “I hope that we might do one thing the place they wouldn’t need to return. Who would need to return? They’ve skilled nothing however loss of life and destruction.”
Neither the USA nor Israel has the precise to ethnically cleanse an Indigenous inhabitants from its land. If President Trump goes ahead with the pressured expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, he will probably be committing a conflict crime that might land him an arrest warrant from the Worldwide Prison Court docket, like his good friend Netanyahu.
Palestine is in Palestinians’ DNA — our sturdy attachment to our land is steadfast. It’s short-sighted to count on that after almost a century of struggling and wrestle for equality and freedom — to not point out the sacrifices of over 62,000 individuals massacred in Gaza over the previous 16 months and the hundreds of Palestinians nonetheless languishing in Israeli jails — that Palestinians are going to surrender the struggle for self-determination and an finish to oppression, apartheid and occupation.
Regardless of Trump’s harmful proposal, the desire of Palestinians the world over is crystal clear: Gaza — or any inch of the occupied territory — is just not available on the market. There will probably be no actual property improvement on high of the corpses of hundreds of Palestinians. Relaxation assured that Palestinians will resist the U.S.’s “stunning” colonization and occupation with all the pieces they’ve obtained — we’ll refuse Trump’s imaginative and prescient of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Center East” with golf programs, casinos and Mar-a-Lago-style resorts.
Hold your arms off of occupied Gaza, the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.
We’re not backing down within the face of Trump’s threats.
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Our process is formidable, and it requires us to floor ourselves in our rules, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
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