US President Trump shocked the world with his plan for America to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and develop it into a paradise that the people of the world can enjoy.
For decades Israelis have heard the counterfeit claim that Gaza (and Judea and Samaria) was historic Palestinian land, and it must be developed into a Palestinian State. Trump’s plan creates a new paradigm that rejects the position that Gaza is Palestinian land and must be saved for an eventual Palestinian state. The president has opened the door to a new way of thought that allows Gaza to be developed into an oasis for other people.
The easily predictable Palestinian response to Trump came howling from all corners of the globe. The Palestinian protest of his plan was accompanied by crocodile tears of fake empathy for the poor Palestinians having their land stolen by the occupying Americans. Cries of “ethnic cleansing” could be heard from the studios of left-wing media to the streets of Dearborn, Michigan. Even some Jews, shell-shocked by years of accusations of occupation, cried the fake protests of “immorality” and were triggered by the so-called violation of sacrosanct “international law.”
These protests were easily discernible as fake because they all demonstrated one common denominator. With all the noise about immorality, ethnic cleansing, Palestinian land, etc., the question of what’s best for the Palestinians was noticeably absent.
None of the Palestinian objections to the Trump plan came with an admission that by refusing the plan, the Palestinians would be doomed to a decade or more of homelessness under the tyrannical rule of the savage Hamas terrorist organization. It is impossible to claim that you care for the Palestinians or are advocating for their best interests if you are promoting a path that condemns them to national devastation.
If the advocates of the Palestinian cause don’t care about the actual Palestinians, what do they care about – and what role do the Palestinians play in their cause?
What do Palestinian advocates care about if they don't care about Palestinians?
THE MERE suggestion that Palestinians aren’t a people is branded as anti-Palestinians racism. “There was no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? 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. They did not exist.”
When people read this Israeli politician’s description of Palestinians, they usually associate it with right-wing politicians, but it was actually said by none other than left-wing Israeli Labor Party prime minister Golda Meir. Yet, when examining the world’s refusal to give Palestinians the tools they’d need to improve their lives, it is clear that the world doesn’t consider the Palestinians a people that deserve self-determination like other people do.
When the Syrian civil war broke out, the world rushed to help the Syrians flee their land and find refuge in safe spaces around the globe. Ten kilometers east of the Jordanian city of Mafraq sits the Zaatari refugee camp, home to 80,000 Syrian refugees. Türkiye welcomes 3.3 million Syrian refugees.
Yet, at a news conference following a meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in mid-October 2023, King Abdullah of Jordan emphatically warned against trying to push Palestinian refugees into Egypt or Jordan: “That is a redline, because I think that is the plan by certain of the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground. No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.”
The King of Jordan, the President of Egypt, and all the other world leaders refusing to provide refuge and shelter to the homeless and suffering Palestinians of Gaza aren’t seeing them as a nation, or even as people. They see them as a place-marker to prevent other nations – presumably Israel – from creating new facts on the ground in Gaza. The Palestinian people have become nothing more than useful tools for the global aspirations of Israel’s opponents.
THE TEN million Jewish people of Europe were condemned to their disastrous fate by the uncaring nations of the world at the 1938 Evian Conference. At that gathering, over thirty of the world’s leading nations acknowledged the dangers the Jewish people faced but did nothing to stop it. They claimed they couldn’t open their borders to provide refuge to the Jews. In the same way, the nations of the world are condemning the Palestinians to homelessness, disease, and life under tyranny by refusing to open their borders.
Palestinians have become a vehicle for condemning Israel. They are an instrument for self-aggrandization, opposing the establishment, and palliative activism devoid of all effect and meaning. The role Palestinians play in the world today is to be the plaything of nations, activists, and politicians. Anyone looking to seem holier-than-thou, oppose the establishment, or feel they are standing for justice have learned to use the Palestinians for their cause.
As soon as President Trump revealed his day-after plan for Gaza, it was easy to predict that it would be rejected by the pro-Palestinian crowd. Just like his plan to invest $50 billion into Palestinian society in his first term, his Gaza plan aims to help Palestinians have a better life.
Improving Palestinian life requires the world to treat Palestinians as a nation with self-determination, allow them the world’s attention and help, become an establishment issue, and transition the palliative pro-Palestinian activism of today into a movement of great effect and meaning. Today’s pro-Palestinian activists, whether they be world leaders, mass media, or the activist marching on the street, do not want any of those things to happen.
The world doesn’t care about or respect the Palestinian people. They’re not interested in helping them improve their lives. They’ve kept the Palestinians as refugees for 76 years, extending their refugee status to Palestinian great-grandchildren of the original refugees. This isn’t a sign of wanting to help Palestinians – it’s a sign of wanting to control them.
The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, where she lives with her husband and six children.