By Reginald Johnson
Lana Savoca
was stunned.
President
Donald Trump had just announced that the United States would take over the war ravaged
Gaza Strip “clean it up” and redevelop it as a new “Riviera” on the
Mediteranean.
At a press
conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the
“spectacular” new development would bring new jobs, new housing and finally peace to the area. But he also
said the people there would have to relocated and it was possible US troops might
be used to assist in the operation, although administration officials later
walked that back.
“It’s really
a shock to me. I couldn’t believe it,” said Savoca, a writer and Palestinian
activist who lives in Greenwich, CT.
“It’s a real
slap in the face to see them sitting next to each other (Trump and Netanyahu)
talking about Gaza and just prime real estate and how they were going to clean
it up and how it’s destroyed now and how people can’t live there and trying to
find a better place for Palestinians,” she said. “In other words, ethnic
cleansing them and saying it in such a calm, methodical manner. I mean, I wish
I had better words for it, but it’s kind of unbelievable.”
Savoca, who lost
over 90 members of her extended family during Israel’s brutal 15-month military operation in Gaza, said she was surprised by the President’s words because during his
campaign Trump had expressed anger at Netanyahu for the way Israel had acted
during the war. She thought he would have come up with a better plan for the
future.
Savoca said the idea of the Palestinians being forced out of Gaza is appalling and brings back memories of the expulsion of
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes to create land for
Israel in 1948. This followed approval of a UN partition plan dividing the old
Palestine, which had been held by the British.
Palestinians call that period “The Nakba,” which in Arabic means, catastrophe.
“It’s just
awful, these people who’ve been through so much, and now they’re choosing to
stay, and they’re traveling back up north where their homes used to be and now
there’s nothing but rubble and poisons from all the destruction and they
desperately want to stay there,” she said.
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| Lana Savoca at a protest against the Gaza war in Washington, D.C. |
Trump’s plan
for a Gaza takeover has been widely criticized by leaders in the Middle East
and also some in the West including Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Legal experts have also said that the US taking Gaza over and driving people
out is a breach of international and humanitarian law.
Despite the
criticism,Trump has doubled down on his plan in interviews and in social media posts.
While Democrats have attacked Trump’s idea some Republicans have endorsed it.
Observers also worry that Trump’s
proposal for a US takeover of Gaza and relocation of the Palestinians undermines
the chances that the fragile cease-fire in place for the past several weeks can
still hold. The truce put at least a temporary stop to a war which has taken
66,000 lives and left Gaza in ruins. World court officials have labeled Israel’s
campaign an act of genocide.
Another
Palestinian who is sharply critical of the
Trump plan is Johnny Sakakini, who operates Abby’s Falafel restaurant in
Trumbull.
“He’s got a
mad dog mentality," Sakakini said of Trump. "This is barbaric. So much has been destroyed
and so many killed and now America is coming to steal the rest. There’s no
respect for anything. I don’t even know why the United Nations even exists, if
America can come along and do whatever the hell they want and nobody can stop
them.”
“So
basically it’s 1948 all over again in a different way – with American hands,” he said. “Before it was British hands, now it’s American hands. Steal and
grab land from Palestinians and expel them and keep them as refugees for the
rest of their lives somewhere else.”
Sakakini, who
grew up in the West Bank and then immigrated to the United States over 30 years
ago, said the Trump idea is doomed to failure, because the Palestinian people will not be
expelled.
“They’re not
going to leave, no matter what he does,” he said. “If Israel could not do
anything for 15 months, with all the power, all the weapons it has engaged in,
almost like nuking the place down, and we stayed, we’re not going anywhere, we’re
staying. Nobody’s going to force us out.”
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| Johnny Sakakini, a Palestinian-American, at his restaurant in Trumbull. |
Harold Koh,
Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, told the BBC that the Gaza takeover idea "is an
astonishingly misguided policy proposal that would also be massively illegal.”
“As a matter
of policy. we have a President who’s proposing to fix the century-old Middle
East problem by building a beach resort on destroyed property of people of
color, who’ve been involuntarily displaced maybe even by the U.S. Army. It’s a
bit of an Atlantic City solution to a serious and horrible problem,” Koh said.
He added, “The way that he proposes to do it sounds like
forcible displacement which is a war crime, a crime against humanity and also
an invasion of sovereignty and a violation of the right of self-determination
which is a violation of the UN Charter.”
Sakakini was asked what can be done at this point to help the Palestinians and solve the conflict with Israel.
“What can be
done is, leave it to the United Nations. The only way is for the Palestinians
to have their own place, what it was in 1967 (prior to the Israeli occupation
of Gaza and the West Bank) and Israel has their land. Just leave us alone, let
us live in peace. Stop poking with us. That’s the only way,” he said.
