350+ rabbis sign US ad decrying Trump's 'ethnic cleansing' plan
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Jewish creatives and rabbis are decrying what they call a wicked plan by Donald Trump to "take over Gaza."
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House on February 11, 2025. (AP)
More than 350 rabbis, along with other signatories, such as Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in The New York Times condemning Donald Trump's proposal to effectively "ethnically cleanse" Palestinians from Gaza.
The ad, signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon, and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists like Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein, and Joaquin Phoenix, reads, “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”
The advertisement follows Trump's plan to "take over Gaza" and leave 2 million Palestinians who have survived "Israel's" deadly aggression on the strip with "no alternative" but to flee their homes.
Trump also confirmed his commitment to "buy and own Gaza," suggesting to turn it into a "prime location for future development" and suggesting the possibility of giving "parts of it to countries in the Middle East for construction."
Cody Edgerly, director of the In Our Name Campaign and one of the ad's organizers, stated that it comes at "a critical time as political redlines that were once thought immovable are rapidly shifting as the Trump-Netanyahu alliance takes hold again."
He wrote that it was "heartening to witness such a rapid outpouring of support from across the denominational and political spectrum," adding that the message to Palestinians is they are "not alone", detailing how "we are committed to fighting with every breath we have to stop ethnic cleansing in Gaza."
Rabbi Toba Spitzer criticized Trump's idea as an "insidious plan" since it invoked the traumatizing memory of the 1948 Nakba, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their homes by Zionists.
Spitzer, head rabbi of Newton, Massachusetts' Dorshei Tzedek synagogue, stated in a press release accompanying the ad that it is critical for the American Jewish community to "add our voices to all those refusing this insidious plan. Hitler’s dream of making Germany ‘Judenrein,’ ‘cleansed of Jews,’ led to the slaughter of our people.”
Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, expressed horror at how some can support what he believes could be "one of the greatest crimes of the 21st century."
Rabbi Yosef Berman of the New Synagogue Project in Washington, DC, called Trump's plan "abhorrent", detailing how Trump "seems to believe he is God with authority to rule, own, and dominate our country and the world."
He added that Trump could not deprive Palestinians of dignity or steal their property for real estate and articulated how "Jewish leaders reject Trump’s attempts to wring profit from displacement and suffering and must act to stop this heinous crime."
