Trump spells out final 'solution' to the Palestinian question
While the statement has shocked many, it aligns with Israel’s long-standing expansionist policies, backed by Western allies
US President Donald Trump has shared his plan to redevelop Gaza after "taking over" and "owning" the "piece of land" and turning the enclave into "the Riviera of the Middle East". The Palestinians living in the Gaza strip will be resettled elsewhere, according to his stated plan.
The world seems to be shocked by Trump's announcement, which he made in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has led the atrocities on the Palestinian land since late 2023, butchering more than 50,000 Palestinian children, women and unarmed men. In fact, it is hard to find anything new in the plan to take over Gaza.
And with the announcement of this plan, it seems Trump has finally lifted the veil off the 'final solution' to the Palestinian question — a solution that has been over 100 years in the making.
Trump's announcement can also be called the Balfour Declaration 2.0; the original Balfour Declaration, issued on 2 November 1917, was a pledge made by Britain to establish "a national home for the Jewish people" on Palestinian land.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
It is also the 'logical' outcome of the Israeli state itself, which has been, with sustained western support over the last century, occupying new territories and pushing Palestinians out of their homes.
Over the course of more than a century, Palestinians have lost significant portions of their land, from the initial impact of Zionist land purchases under British rule to the loss of 78% of their land in 1948, and the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Before the British Mandate, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire for about 400 years. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Britain took control of Palestine under the League of Nations' Mandate system. During the 1920s and 1930s, large numbers of Jews, particularly from Europe, began immigrating to Palestine, displacing local Palestinians.
By the late 1930s, Palestinians began to resist the growing Jewish presence, fearing the loss of their lands and livelihoods.
In 1947, after years of unrest, the United Nations proposed a partition plan to resolve the conflict between Jews and Arabs. The plan divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international control. The plan allocated 55% of the land to a Jewish state, even though Jews made up only about one-third of the population.
In 1948, the state of Israel was declared following the British withdrawal. This triggered the first Arab-Israeli war, with neighbouring Arab states intervening. During and after the war, over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were forcibly displaced or fled from their homes in what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba (meaning catastrophe). This marked the beginning of the mass exodus and dispossession of Palestinians.
Israel seized 78% of historical Palestine during the 1948 war, including areas allocated for the Arab state under the UN partition plan. Palestinians lost vast swaths of land, including their homes, farms, and livelihoods.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees, either fleeing to neighbouring Arab countries or living in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. The refugee issue remains unresolved to this day.
In the 1950s, Israel began establishing settlements in the land it controlled. The Israeli government promoted the settlement of Jewish citizens in areas that had previously been Palestinian. This process continued throughout the following decades.
Then in June 1967, Israel fought a war against neighboring Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, and Syria) and captured large parts of Palestinian land: the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. This marked the start of Israel's military occupation of these territories.
The West Bank and Gaza, which had been under Jordanian and Egyptian control, respectively, were now under Israeli control. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel, and Israeli settlements began expanding in the occupied territories.
In the 1990s, the Oslo Accords provided a framework for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). The accords established the Palestinian Authority and gave it limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. However, the accords failed to address key issues, including the status of Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and the expansion of Israeli settlements.
Despite the Oslo process, Israeli settlement construction continued, particularly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. By the 2000s, the Israeli government had built hundreds of settlements, further reducing the land available to Palestinians.
Till date, Israel has continued to expand settlements in the West Bank, despite international condemnation. Palestinian homes are demolished, and large areas of land are confiscated for the construction of Israeli settlements or military zones.
In East Jerusalem, Palestinians face forced evictions and demolitions in areas like Sheikh Jarrah, where Israeli settlers are taking over Palestinian homes. The expansion of Israeli settlements in and around Jerusalem is part of a larger effort to consolidate Israeli control over the city.
And now, after Israel's Gaza offensive that began in October 2023, most of the Gaza Strip is under rubble, which Trump wants to clear and rebuild.
While this has shocked the world, it also prompted widespread online discussion with many redrawing maps showing new US territories in places like Gaza, Canada, Greenland and Panama. President Trump earlier threatened to annex the latter countries and territories.
While many are having a hard time believing that Trump will actually pursue his stated goal to own Gaza, given his tendency to give birth to controversial headlines every now and then, the ever-continued expansion of Israel with the help of its western allies indicates that his announcement could actually be the 'final solution' of the Palestine issue when seen from the point of view of Israelis, with the already occupied West Bank being the next target.
