President Donald Trump said Sunday that Palestinians would have no right to return to Gaza under his plan for the region.
At a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, Trump detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take “ownership” in redeveloping Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later tried to walk back Trump’s comments by claiming that the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is only temporary.
But in an excerpt of a pre-Super Bowl LIX interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Trump made it clear that under his plan Palestinians have no place in Gaza.
“We’ll build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people,” Trump said. “We’ll build beautiful communities, safe communities. Could be five, six, could be two. But we’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”
“Would the Palestinians have the right to return?” Baier asked.
“No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing,” Trump answered.
“In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever – it’s not habitable,” he continued. “It would be years before it could happen. I’m talking about starting to build, and I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year.”
Trump’s comments last week earned swift condemnation from Arab nations in the region and American allies
Egypt and Jordan have also n rejected Trump’s proposal to resettle Palestinian refugees.
