• Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza & forcibly relocate its Palestinian population has been condemned globally.
• Several European nations reaffirming support for a two-state solution. Scotland’s First Minister responded by stating “There must be no ethnic cleansing”.
President Donald Trump’s grotesque proposal to take control of blood-soaked Gaza, to transform it into a “Riveria of the Middle East” and forcibly relocate Gazans, has upended long-standing U.S. policy on the Palestine, igniting global condemnation.
Saudi Arabia, whose cooperation Trump hoped to secure in normalising ties with Israel, firmly rejected the plan. Saudi’s Foreign Ministry has reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s “firm and unwavering” support for Palestinian statehood. The remark comes as tensions escalate between the U.S. and the Arab world over Trump’s demand to forcibly relocate Gaza’s Palestinian population to another Arab nation.
Turkey labelled the genocidal proposal as unacceptable. Russia, China, Spain, Ireland, and the UK reaffirmed their commitment to a two-state solution. The U.K. Cabinet minister Steve Reed said the U.S. president deserved “credit for helping to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas”. However, he stressed that the, “U.K. still backs a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Palestinian civilians have been through a living nightmare for the last 14 months,” Reed, the environment secretary said.
France condemned the proposal in the strongest terms, calling the forced relocation of Palestinians a grave breach of international law and a blow to their legitimate national aspirations. Paris warned that such a move could exacerbate regional instability.
First Minister of Scotland John Swinney posted on X:
In his first major Middle East policy address, Trump imagined a coastal resort community in Gaza, where international residents could live in peace. This comes after the enclave’s infrastructure was decimated by more than 15 months of brutal Israeli airstrikes, which have massacred over 47,000 Palestinians.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad released the following statement:
“President Donald Trump, in his arrogance, has placed our people in the Gaza Strip before a single choice: displacement. He should remember that 15 months of relentless bombing, with 80,000 tons of American weaponry, failed to displace them. Does he now imagine that deceptive, racist statements wrapped in false humanity will achieve what bombs could not?
“Our Palestinian people have always had the option of resistance, a path they have pursued for over a century-before Trump and after him.
Indeed, it is a jihad of victory or martyrdom.”
A senior official from Hamas dismissed Trump’s proposal as “ridiculous and absurd”.
Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor Jared Kushner had previously described Gaza as a “prime waterfront property”. The proposal sent diplomatic shockwaves across the Middle East and beyond, drawing a sharp response from China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated Beijing’s opposition to forced displacement, emphasising support for a two-state solution and asserting that Palestinians must govern their own territory.
On 26th January, Trump stated that he wanted to “clean out Gaza”, illustrating his emboldened intentions for ethnic cleansing.
