Thousands of Palestinians returned to northern Gaza by foot along its coastal Al-Rasheed Road from Southern Gaza to reconnect with their lives and what is left of the destroyed area.
Those in vehicles returned by way of the Salah al Deen Road where they were met with compulsory Israeli security checks. The return was part of the fragile three-phased ceasefire deal made in early January.
The ceasefire allowed for a halt in the 16-month war for 42 days, which has already seen mutual accusations of violations between the Israeli occupier forces and Hamas, the Palestinian resistance group. At the same time, President Donald Trump has called for clearing out Gaza, and for Palestinians to be resettled in Jordan and Egypt.
“You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just cleaned out that whole thing,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Jan. 25, answering a question about a call earlier that day with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
He said Jordan, which has over two million Palestinian refugees, should take in more. He told reporters that Egypt should do the same and that it can be temporary or long-term.
“Something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything is demolished,” said President Trump. “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” he added.
In response, Egypt and Jordan gave the American president a thumbs down on the idea. Critics argue that relocating and resettling Palestinians is problematic and wrong.
“Regarding what is being said about the displacement of Palestinians, it can never be tolerated or allowed because of its impact on Egyptian national security,” said Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, on Jan. 29.
“The deportation or displacement of the Palestinian people is an injustice in which we cannot participate,” he said, reported Reuters. However, days later when asked about Egypt and Jordan’s refusal, President Trump defiantly responded, “They will do it. We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it.”
Pro-Palestinian rights advocates say the idea is problematic because it plays into an agenda of permanent removal of Palestinians and an illegal annexation of Gaza.
Observers argue it shows America’s complicity in Israel’s rights abuses that include 77 years of Israel denying Palestinians’ “right of return” to their historic lands, a flagrant violation of international law. The decades-long denial of return is one of the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinian resistance will never accept being moved to Jordan or Egypt, despite the devastation caused by the war, Palestinian refugee and activist Wafic Faour told The Final Call.
His family was displaced since the Nakba or Catastrophe of 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed at the creation of Israel as a state. “My view … there is no difference between the Trump administration from (former President Joe Biden),” said Mr. Faour.
The Biden administration pressed for a similar idea, demanding Egypt’s President Al-Sissi allow Palestinians to resettle in the Sinai Peninsula. President Trump’s request is more of America’s support of the Zionist regime led by Benjamin Netanyahu and a right-wing element aiming to remove Palestinians and resettle Israelis in Gaza again, explained Mr. Faour.
“The last 15 months, the ethnic cleansing was part of the Israeli goals,” he explained, referring to the war starting in October 2023.
The Israeli occupier forces slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians, injured over 110,000, and displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, representing 90% of Gaza’s population.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, revealed during his Saviours’ Day message delivered on February 24, 2024, that the slaughter, displacement, and illegal expansion of settlements are linked to a broader agenda to establish
“Greater Israel” and remake the Middle East. His message was titled, “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi And The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East.”
Many observers also fear a second Nakba.
“We know if we leave that piece of land or any inch of Palestine, they’re going to take it, and they’re not going to stop there,” said Mr. Faour. They are eyeing a big chunk of Lebanon, Syria, all the way to Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt to the Nile River, he said. “They think “better Israel,” reasoned Mr. Faour. “They’ll take it inch by inch … if they are allowed,” he added.
For Palestinians, they are fighting not only for the land but their life and the lifeblood of their children, Mr. Faour previously told The Final Call in an interview.
Proponents of the Zionist settler movement have openly stated their aim to usurp Gaza and build more Jewish settlements, which international law prohibits. In December 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemned all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including east Jerusalem.
It also condemned the construction and expansion of settlements, the transfer of Israeli settlers, the confiscation of land, demolition of homes and the displacement of Palestinians.
Additionally, in July of last year the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top legal body, issued an advisory opinion requested by the UN General Assembly. The opinion demanded Israel cease further land grabbing, the building of new settlements, and for Israel to dismantle its system of occupation.
The ICJ concluded that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and under an obligation to end its unlawful presence “as rapidly as possible.”
It further stated that “all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation” arising from Israel’s unlawful presence. They are also obligated “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence” of the Zionist state in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Although advisory opinions are non-binding, they lend weight to the legal consequences of Israel’s “ongoing violation” of Palestinian rights to self-determination.
Nonetheless, whatever way the courts of this world judge, there is also the Judgment of the God of Justice, cautioned the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Minister Farrakhan and his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warned for several generations of the fate of Israel and America’s plans.
When war broke out in October 2023, the matter of eradicating Palestinians was in the thinking of Mr. Netanyahu and the right-wing leaders of Israel’s government, Minister Farrakhan warned. “He had in his mind a second Nakba,” said Minister Farrakhan, in his February 25, 2024, remarks.
The first Nakba or catastrophe on the Palestinians occurred in 1948 when Israel became a state, and exiled Palestinians, making them like vagabonds on the earth. The intensity of this current war is aimed at the same and worse.
“He had in mind—Netanyahu—he was going to use pain of their loss to destroy the whole Palestinian community, not only in Gaza but the West Bank, east Jerusalem,” explained Minister Farrakhan. “It was a genocidal attack that he knew would preserve his place as a great Jewish leader,” he said, speaking of the Israeli prime minister.
“People do strange things when their hatred is so great of the people that they are killing. That their intention was to cleanse Gaza from every Palestinian that lived there and cleanse the West Bank and east Jerusalem so that Israel would not be bothered with Palestinians anymore,” Minister Farrakhan also stated.
Expelling Palestinians is made fair seeming because, to the Zionist mind, they are not considered a people as illustrated by the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. “There was no such thing as Palestinians.
It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them,” said Ms. Meir in a June 15, 1969, interview. “They did not exist,” she said.
“She is boldly saying, ‘yeah we took your country and throwing you out’ because in their minds you don’t exist,” said Minister Farrakhan, referring to Ms. Meir.
“Now one of the names of Allah is He who causes everything to exist that exists and produces the means and maintenance of their existence,” Minister Farrakhan explained. “So, for this Jewish woman to say in her mind that they have no existence at all, see this is the way they talk now,” he said.
Minister Farrakhan warned from the scriptures that the God of Justice will judge the actions of the unjust rulers and “open the graves of all of those who have been slain under the wicked rule.” In their arrogance, they think they will not have to pay for their bloodshed across the earth.
“But who will pay for the killing of the Palestinian people, men, women and children? Who will for the destruction of the Palestinian life and culture and civilization? Who will pay for that?” said Minister Farrakhan.
