United States President Donald Trump set off alarm bells this month when, standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House, he said the US would “take control” of the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians in other countries.
Trump framed the expulsion of the Palestinian population from the Strip – left unrecognisable by Israeli bombing – as an act of humanitarian necessity, citing the threat of unexploded ordnance and unstable structures.
Palestinians should be able to live in “beautiful houses”, Trump added. Just not in Gaza itself.
But Palestinians say the promise of new developments in foreign countries skirts the demand at the centre of their aspirations: the right to live with dignity and equal rights in their historic homeland.
“My first reaction was disbelief. That a president would call to displace two million people from their own land,” said Leila Giries, a Palestinian who lives in California.
For Giries and other Palestinians, the call for expulsion invokes painful memories of dispossession and exile.
Giries herself is a survivor of the events Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, which means “the catastrophe”.
The term refers to the forced expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist paramilitaries during Israel’s founding in 1948. The residents of many Palestinian towns and villages were barred from ever returning, deemed “infiltrators” by the newly founded Israeli state.
Giries keeps a bag her mother carried while fleeing their village of Ayn Karim framed on the wall of her California residence, along with a key to their home in historic Palestine that was demolished after their expulsion.
The items are symbols of both the pain of exile and her determination to maintain ties to her homeland.
“I left Palestine when I was eight years old, but I cannot forget it. It’s where my parents and my grandparents are from. I am connected to the land,” Giries said.
“When I see the photos of crowds of displaced people marching on the road in Gaza, it breaks my heart. It brings back memories, memories, memories.”
‘Palestinians will not vanish and die’
Following fierce backlash from Palestinians, rights groups and a coalition of leaders from countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Trump eased his position by stating that he would only “suggest” the adoption of his plan.
The US president had previously insisted that he would “own” Gaza, stating that its place by the sea could transform it into an ideal location for high-end real estate.
This week, Trump even shared a bizarre AI-generated video on social media showing Gaza filled with skyscrapers and luxury resorts, with him and Netanyahu relaxing next to a swimming pool.
Notably absent was any sign of the Palestinians who have called Gaza home for generations.
“Only a fool would think it’s possible to cleanse Gaza of the Palestinians so you can build a real estate project,” says Michael Kardoush, who fled his home in Nazareth after it came under Israeli control in 1948. Palestinians inside Israeli territory lived under martial law with no rights until 1966.
“The reality is that Palestinians will not vanish and die.”
But Israeli leaders and officials have continued to eagerly promote Trump’s vision, seeing an opportunity to advance a longstanding ambition to depopulate the strip.
In a statement last week, Netanyahu said Israel was “committed to US President Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza”, which he previously lauded as “revolutionary”.
But Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations who grew up in Gaza, told Al Jazeera t