President Donald Trump is not quitting his campaign to convince the leaders of Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed in Gaza.
The president reiterated his appeal onboard Air Force One on Monday, claiming he’s been in contact with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt about the matter.
“I wish he would take some,” Trump told reporters. “We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us.”
Trump referred to El-Sisi as “a friend of mine,” leading a nation in “a very rough part of the world, to be honest.”
“As they say, it’s a rough neighborhood,” Trump added. “But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too.”
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are returning to northern parts of Gaza amid the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The infrastructure and basic living conditions of the area have been almost totally obliterated by 15 months of warfare.
“There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it,” Trump said Monday. “You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”
The president originally said during a press gaggle on Saturday that he would like to “build housing at a different location” for the refugees, either “temporarily or long-term” with the help of El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, so that Palestinians “can maybe live in peace for a change.”
Trump’s insistence on pressing the Egyptian president and Abdullah II over the issue of Palestinian refugees is a direct counter to both nations’ outspoken opposition to such a plan.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement Sunday that conveyed “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land and their adherence to their legitimate rights in their land and homeland, as well as to the principles of international law and international humanitarian law.”
The ministry also promised to reject “any infringement upon those inalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, annexation of land, or the eviction of the rightful owners through displacement or encouraging the transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or permanently.”
Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister of Jordan, was equally opposed to Trump’s request, asserting that Palestinians must remain on Palestinian land.
“Palestine is for the Palestinians and Jordan is for the Jordanians,” Safadi said. “The solution to the Palestinian problem is located on Palestinian soil and embodied by a Palestinian state.”
Countries and institutions critical of Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank fear that the displacement of Palestinian residents to other countries would be a foot in the door for a total annexation of the territory.
Many remain hopeful for an eventual two-state solution that would grant Palestinians their own sovereign territory — a displacement of Gazan residents would likely undermine that goal.
Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese called the idea of removing Palestinians from Gaza a form of “ethnic cleansing” that is “illegal, immoral, and irresponsible.”
Trump is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next month, the first foreign leader to visit the United States since the new administration began.
Despite his refusal to back down in his campaign to win over the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders, Trump’s friendly tone on the subject denotes a much less forceful posture compared to his treatment of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
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Trump publicly lambasted the “socialist president” for refusing to accept two flights of illegal immigrants deported back to Colombia over the weekend, promising to severely punish the South American country with crippling tariffs.
Petro, despite accusing the administration of being “white slavers” who see Colombians as an “inferior race,” eventually backed down and agreed to the repatriation of deported migrants.
