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# 'This is Ethnic Cleansing': Trump's Idea for Jordan and Egypt to Take Gazans Triggers Outrage
January 27 2025
Written by Eloise Goldsmith.
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ETHNIC CLEANSING - Speaking to reporters Saturday, U.S. President [Donald Trump](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/donald-trump) said he would like to see most of the population of war-torn [Gaza](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/gaza) be relocated to Jordan and Egypt, a plan that a number of observers said was tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Trump made the remarks the same day that he lifted a Biden-era [hold](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-makes-2000-pound-bombs-available-israel-undoing-bidens-pause-2025-01-25/) on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to [Israel](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/israel).
"I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump [said](https://www.ft.com/content/8f532d01-a8cc-49e3-b1db-31e3da8d3771), according to the Financial Times. "You're talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing." Gaza's [population](https://www.britannica.com/place/Gaza-Strip) was 2.2 million in 2023.
"'Clean out' is barely even a euphemism. This is ethnic cleansing, call it what it is," wrote Assal Rad, the author of a book on modern Iran, on X, [reacting](https://x.com/AssalRad/status/1883429524446360060) to an Associated Press article about Trump's comments.
The independent reporter Talia Jane [wrote](https://x.com/taliaotg/status/1883381176334983422): "What's it called when you clean out an ethnic group from a region."
"He's just openly endorsing/encouraging ethnic cleansing," [wrote](https://bsky.app/profile/mehdirhasan.bsky.social/post/3lgmkfd2bzk2b) the journalist Mehdi Hasan on Saturday. Others chimed in with [similar remarks](https://bsky.app/profile/sethabramson.bsky.social/post/3lgnmfcs77s26).
Trump's comments were made [nearly a week](https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-hamas-ceasefire) after a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, halting 15 months of war that was triggered by a Hamas deadly attack on Israel in October, 2023 and which left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, according to local health officials.
Homes, shelter, and infrastructure has also been largely [decimated](https://www.commondreams.org/news/gazans-return-homes-destroyed) in the Gaza Strip by Israel's military campaign there. Trump said that Gaza is "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," [per](https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/25/politics/trump-gaza-strip-jordan-egypt/index.html)CNN.
"What the occupation has failed to achieve through its criminal bombardment and genocide in Gaza will not be implemented through political pressures," [said](https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/25/politics/trump-gaza-strip-jordan-egypt/index.html) independent Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, according to CNN. "The conspiracy of ethnic cleansing will not succeed in Gaza or the West Bank."
Trump also [told](https://www.ft.com/content/8f532d01-a8cc-49e3-b1db-31e3da8d3771) reporters that he had already discussed the idea to relocate Gazans with King Abdullah of Jordan on Saturday. He said he planned to bring up the plan during a Sunday phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah A-Sisi.
Trump's proposal would be a departure from the United States' official [position](https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-palestinian-territories#:~:text=U.S.%2DPALESTINIAN%20RELATIONS&text=The%20U.S.%20Government%20remains%20committed,of%20freedom%2C%20security%20and%20prosperity.) of forging a negotiated "two state solution" for Israel and [Palestine](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/palestine), although [some say](https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-us-policy-israeli-palestinian-conflict) that the United States' policies towards the region, [including](https://quincyinst.org/research/mind-the-gap-u-s-preferences-and-israels-war-conduct/#executive-summary) the nearly unqualified support for Israel during its campaign in Gaza, have undercut that goal.
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich endorsed Trump's remarks, [according](https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/25/politics/trump-gaza-strip-jordan-egypt/index.html) to CNN, saying "the idea of helping \[Gazans\] find other places to start new, better lives is a great idea."
*(Eloise Goldsmith is a staff writer for Common Dreams where this article was first published.)*
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