It wasn't bad enough that Trump suggested that Gaza be emptied of its Palestinian residents and have them moved to Egypt and Jordan. But since both of those nations refused to receive those Gazans, he now wants to move them to places in Africa where there is poverty and, in some locations, violence (click here). Netanyahu agrees with Trump's plans. All of that is despite the fact that Arab states have offered to foot the bill to rebuild Gaza.
This forced removal of a people from their land has precedents in American history. And so what we are seeing is that Trump is leading Israel to repeat some of the worst parts of American history. In particular, Trump wants Israel to repeat how Americans treated Indians. Those of us Americans who are living now and who are not immediately repulsed by Trump's suggestions show that we neither have personally come to grips with all of American history nor that we have any commitment to principles outside of holding to self-interest. The same could be said of those conservatives who complain that they have heard enough, if not too much, of America's past treatment of Blacks. Those conservatives say that it is now time to move on. But shouldn't the bare minimum.of us moving on include admitting, rather than repeating, past atrocities?
On the other hand, there is some continuity between Trump's plan and Israel's Occupation practices in the West Bank. That is because the goal of both is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from the lands that Israel covets. The difference between Trump's proposal and Israel's occupation is in speed. Whereas the Occupation is facilitating a slow ethnic cleansing, Trump's plan would result in a relatively quick one. An additional absence of humanity in the removal of Gazans from Gaza is that it would all but cut off any contact that Gazans would have with friends and family from the West Bank.
Trump's plan refuses to fully recognize the humanity of the Gazan people. The same could be said of Israel's Occupation of those living in the Palestinian Territories. Both are imitations of how America, for almost its full history, has refused to fully recognize the humanity of non-whites, especially Native Americans and Blacks, within its borders. And Israel's imitation should not surprise us considering all of the ties that have bound America and Israel together. That includes the fact that Netanyahu was educated in America for a significant amount of of his life. And another factor includes the authoritarian leadership styles that both Trump and Netanyahu exhibit.
So if there are ties between the current leaders of the U.S. and Israel in how they lead lead their nations in their treatment of the Palestinians , we have to face the fact that there are possible ties between the oppressed people in America and the Palestinians. Those ties are more comparable with Native Americans from the past, but they also exist with many Blacks as well. In either case, what we see in both Israel and the U.S. is that there are a certain groups of people who claim to have rights that they deny to others from having. That changes their rights into privileges because the claiming of rights for one group but not others implies that one is at least partially denying the citizenship and humanity of another group.
At the same time, fairness demands that the accusations made against the Occupation and Trump's plan must also be made against all Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians. That each Palestinian attack on Israeli civilians must be counted as a denial of the full humanity of all Israelis. There is no justification for those attacks. And we cannot afford to minimize in any way the atrocities committed by groups like Hamas. Those attacks, the Occupation, and Trump's plan must all be vehemently condemned. And though Israel had a right to respond to Hamas's October 7th atrocities, not every possible response is a moral one. And so condemnation of Palestinian terrorism, the Occupation, and Trump's plan must also include an acknowledgement and understanding of the context for both the Occupation and Palestinian terrorism. And that leaves us with one complicated mess where, all too many times, it seems like there are no adults in the room who would restore some resemblance of order.
Recently, a French politician demanded that the U.S. return the Statue of Liberty because Trump's current policies show that America now despises that statue and what it stands for. Though it doesn't appear that that politician had Trump's plans for Gaza in mind, those plans fit neatly into that politician's complaint. And one has to admit that that politician has a point unless, of course, one has fallen prey to the tractor beam of needing to be flattered to feel significant.
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