DONALD Trump has sparked international concern after calling for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza – saying he believes in a “clean out” of the Palestinian region.
The US president called for the population of Gaza to be housed elsewhere, either temporarily or long-term, in comments that experts say amounts to support for a war crime.
His comments came as he spoke to reporters about a conversation he had had with Abdullah II, the king of Jordan.
“I said to him that I’d love you to take on more cause I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess,” Trump said.
Audio of Trump on Gaza: I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people. You're talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing… pic.twitter.com/rPyQYgMhHJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 26, 2025
“They can take people. I’d like Egypt to take people. I’m meeting with – I’m talking with [Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi] tomorrow sometime. And I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people and we just clean out that whole thing.
“You know it’s, over the centuries, many, many conflicts, that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen but it’s literally a demolition site right now.
“Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”
He then added: “Could be either – could be temporary, could be long-term.”
Thomas Juneau, a professor of international affairs at Ottawa University said that a “clean out” of Gaza as Trump suggested “would be ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity, and it is insane the US president is casually saying it”.
The Geneva Conventions state that “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive”.
Gerhard Kemp, a professor of criminal law at the University of the West of England, said that Trump’s calls amounted to ethnic cleansing – a crime against humanity – and “could even be viewed as genocide”.
The far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed Trump’s comments, saying: “The idea of helping them find other places to start a better life is a great idea. After years of glorifying terrorism, they will be able to establish new and good lives in other places.”
Smotrich said that "out-of-the-box" thinking, like Trump's, is what is needed.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said: “Ethnic cleansing is anything but an ‘out-of the box’ thinking, no matter how one packages it. It is illegal, immoral and irresponsible.”
Israel’s ongoing occupation and settlement of the West Bank is also deemed illegal under international law.
Netanyahu is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.
This Sunday, January 26, marks one year since the International Court of Justice ruled that Palestinians' right to be protected from genocide was facing a "plausible" risk due to Israel's actions.
Experts across the world, including the charity Amnesty International, have said that Israel's actions in Gaza amount to genocide, which Netanyahu's government denies.
