We Categorically Oppose the Trump Plan for Gaza
Friday, February 14, 2025: Founded in 1934 to oppose Nazism in Germany and Fascism elsewhere in Europe, the Jewish Labor Committee knows all-too-well the history of forced displacement. The JLC categorically opposes President Trump's proposal to expel 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and to involve the United States in seizing the territory for its redevelopment.
Under his plan, President Trump has stated that the Palestinians would not be allowed to return to the Gaza Strip. The forced deportation of a civilian population is not only a violation of international law, but also a war crime. We join with others in the international community in opposing President Trump's plan in its entirety.
Gaza is not a real estate opportunity. It is part of the land that is destined to become an independent Palestinian state.
We have for many years expressed our support for the two-state solution to this conflict, recognizing the legitimate rights of the Jewish people and the Palestinian people to live in independent countries in their ancestral homelands. And we support a negotiated solution to the many challenges of land and border disputes, etc., -- understanding that both peoples have the right to national self-determination.
Unlike their understanding of the connections between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland, President Trump and supporters of his plan do not understand the historic as well as contemporary connections of the Palestinian people and their land.
Apparently, President Trump did not consult with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Defense Department, or U.S. allies in the Middle East, including the Government of the State of Israel, before making his plan public. His proposal is incendiary, fueling adamant objections from Egypt and Jordan, countries Trump expects to take in the expelled Palestinians, as well as from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Were Egypt and Jordan to relent under massive pressure from the Trump Administration, it would destabilize those two U.S. allies, leading to more havoc in the region.
Gaza certainly needs to be rebuilt, both structurally and politically, without Hamas as the governing body, and rendering Hamas incapable of ever mounting an October 7th kind of attack again. But President Trump's plan is absolutely not the way to do it.