Newly elected US President Donald Trump has pushed for Jordan and Egypt to take in displaced Palestinians to “clean out” Gaza. The president reportedly spoke to leaders in Jordan and Egypt in late January of this year, asking the two countries to take in more Palestinians. This has raised questions around U.S. policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and two of its crucial allies in the region. President Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had spoken with King Abdullah II of Jordan, saying, “I said to him, ‘I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess.’”
Mr. Trump’s commentary appears to echo the sentiment of far-right Israelis that Palestinians be ‘encouraged’ to leave Gaza and has been welcomed by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a former minister who recently resigned from government over the ceasefire deal. Mr. Ben-Gvir revealed that he would return if the conflict resumed, posting on X, “Congratulations to US President Trump on the initiative to transfer residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt.”
In Gaza, an official of Hamas has rejected the idea and has emphasised the fears of Palestinians being driven from what remains of their homelands. Millions of Palestinian refugees are already displaced in camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Others also live in other Arab countries – and around the world. However, Palestinians and their allies have long rejected the further resettlement of Palestinians, claiming that removing people by force would eliminate the prospect of a recognised Palestinian state in the future. Jordan and Egypt also vehemently oppose forced resettlement of Palestinians. Earlier in the conflict, Egypt had concerns about the moving of Palestinians into its territory and warned Israel that it was risking jeopardising the historic Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, a safeguard of stability in the Middle East since it was signed in 1979. A statement released by the Foreign Ministry of Egypt conveyed that any effort to forcibly uproot Palestinians from their land would be a “violation” that “threatens stability and risks escalating the conflict in the region.”
This could be considerably destabilising for Jordan, a population already approximately half Palestinian, amid concerns this would be violating the terms of the 1994 Peace Treaty. The treaty which was signed during the Clinton administration, stipulated that Israel would not displace Palestinians into Jordan. If Israel were to break this, Jordan’s leader King Abdullah II would be unlikely to respond, given the threat of retaliation from both Israel and the Unites States, and as a result face a breakdown of power, potentially seeing a new government far less likely to engage with the Unites States or with Israel.
Whether Mr. Trump’s comments were suggesting all the population of Gaza, approximately two million people, should leave, is unclear. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.” Trump said of Gaza on Saturday 25th January. “I don’t know. Something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now.”
He added that Palestinians could be in Jordan and Egypt “temporarily or could be long-term.” It is also unclear whether these remarks signal a change in U.S. policy toward Palestinians, however, the vague rhetoric that comes with Mr. Trump’s return to the Oval Office raises questions surrounding the relations the United States has with the Middle East.
