Scholz declares 'total rejection' of Trump's Gaza 'takeover' plan
6 Min Read
Scholz dismisses Trump’s Gaza displacement plan and ICC sanctions, calling them unacceptable and a threat to global accountability.
-
German Chancellor and SPD top candidate Olaf Scholz gives a statement in front of the main factory of struggling steel producer ThyssenKrupp ahead of the German federal Bundestag elections later this month in Duisburg, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has categorically rejected former US President Donald Trump’s proposal to "resettle" Palestinians from Gaza, calling it completely unacceptable.
"What President Trump put on the table gets a total rejection from me," Scholz stated during a campaign event in Ludwigsburg, western Germany. "We cannot resettle the population of Gaza to Egypt and Jordan. That is not ok."
Scholz also took aim at Trump’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), warning that they undermine a vital institution meant to hold global leaders accountable.
"Sanctions are the wrong tool. They jeopardize an institution that is supposed to ensure that the dictators of this world cannot simply persecute people and start wars, and that is very important," he said.
Trump Gaza 'takeover' plan could amount to ‘ethnic cleansing’: HRW
Human Rights Watch warned, on Thursday, that US President Donald Trump's proposal to relocate over a million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip could amount to "ethnic cleansing" if implemented.
Adam Coogle, Deputy Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch, expressed uncertainty about the plan’s implementation but stressed that the proposal itself is "very concerning".
“If it were to transform into state policy, it would potentially amount to ethnic cleansing. And if done with intent, it would be forced displacement. And if that forced displacement was done as part of a systematic and widespread attack against the civilian population as a matter of state policy, it would actually be a crime against humanity," he explained.
Coogle also highlighted that while countries are required to consider individual asylum applications, “they do not have an obligation to participate in the forced displacement of the entire population of the Gaza Strip.”
Israeli media: Trump's Gaza takeover plan not feasible
Trump's plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza could be a "gimmick" that displays his "out-of-the-box" thinking, but it's not a realistic plan especially when no Palestinian factions agree to it, according to the arab affairs analyst at Yedioth Ahronoth.
Trump's plan for the "voluntary emigration" of Palestinians created a new fantasy in "Israel", the news website added. Many Israelis "want to see Gaza leveled to the ground, the Palestinians disappearing, and the Strip, which was a beehive for the Israeli army for decades, becoming a prosperous American Riviera," as reported by Ynet. "It's a real dream, it has one caveat however, it is not realistic, impossible, and implausible to implement."
The newspaper went on to add, "There is no Palestinian entity that will agree to cooperate with Trump's plan for migration or transfer, especially since any mention of migration or departure immediately aligns with the greatest collective catastrophe of the Palestinian people – the Nakba of 1948."
