THE of the war of annihilation against the Palestinian people is “on hold” in the Gaza Strip following the ceasefire there and currently manifests in the violent disbandment by Israel of the refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem in the West Bank — and the systematic destruction of everything that exists within them. 

This should leave onlookers under no doubt as to the ultimate objective of the Israeli forces. 

It was not the removal of the threat of Hamas or the rescue of the hostages they took, as they claimed to the world. It was the forcible displacement of the Palestinians from their homes and the pushing of them into migrating elsewhere in a naked act of ethnic cleansing.

Given that this is the case, and by the same logic, those actors falling over themselves to applaud and welcome the regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa — who, until recently, had a 10 million-dollar bounty on his head — in Syria, should have no issue with Hamas if it agrees to go along with the plans of Israel and the United States.

The failure of Israel after 15 months of genocidal war and the historic scenes before the eyes of the world of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians willingly and defiantly returning to their destroyed homes and neighbourhoods in the north of Gaza at the first opportunity, has meant that the imperialist-zionist alliance realised that it must look for another way to implement the displacement designs that did not succeed by sheer bloody force.

The “old-new” US president, Donald Trump, announced his second arrival with his racist proposal to deport the population of the Gaza Strip to other countries and take ownership of the territory, as if it was somehow a real estate plot up for grabs — or even within Israel’s gift to hand over to him in the first place, once Israel has militarily cleared up there.

This is clearly an attempt to give real effect to the monumental lie first put about by the zionist movement, even before the blood-soaked establishing of the state of Israel, that Palestine is a land without a people to be inhabited by a people without a land — a monumental lie at the heart of designs that saw the arming and facilitation of violent zionist terrorist groups under the watch of the British Mandate army, in pursuance of the implementation of the Balfour Declaration; the horrific crimes and genocide perpetrated against the inhabitants of villages, towns and cities throughout Palestine; and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into refugee camps, where they remain to this day still dreaming of returning to their homes: the right of return being enshrined under United Nations Resolution 194.

And it is because of this survival of the refugees’ dream of return and the securing of an independent and sovereign Palestine, which has haunted Israel and the global imperialist alliance behind it since the former’s founding in 1948, that we now witness the attempts to do away with the refugee issue once and for all. 

This has encompassed the attacks upon the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Trump’s defunding of the organisation in both his terms in office; the laying to waste of the refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, the majority of its population constituting refugees in the first place; the ongoing disbandment and destruction of the refugee camps in the West Bank that we are witnessing today; and the concerted pressure being exerted on neighbouring countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and especially Syria, to accept displaced Palestinians and “assimilate” them into their wider populations as “equal citizens,” thereby rendering the Palestinian refugee issue null and void.

It is no coincidence that Trump’s first decision after taking office was to cancel the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on some extremist settlers in the West Bank who practise terrorism against the local population in Palestinian villages, towns and cities, as well as his statement that Israel is a small country and must be expanded.

This is, of course, at the cruel expense of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and a paean to the policies of the fascist right in the most extreme and racist government in the history of Israel. We should not forget that Trump, in his first term, recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy there, and recognised Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

And now, he congratulates Israel on a “great job” in its onslaughts in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as its further occupation of sovereign Syrian territory and destruction of that country’s defensive capabilities in the chaotic wake of Bashar al-Assad’s downfall, and gleefully signs off on the release of shipments of heavy weapons to Israel and military assistance to the tune of 1 billion dollars. All this within his first few days back in office. 

And, to top it all off, Benjamin Netanyahu — wanted on an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court — is the first foreign leader he receives at the White House.

Despite the worldwide revulsion at Trump’s typically bigoted and racist proposal, the Trump-Netanyahu alliance has doubled down on its poisonous vision and continue to discuss ways of implementing it. Thus, we bear witness to the Israeli war minister announcing his army’s readiness to implement the displacement by land, sea and air, as well as shamefully declaring that countries that took issue with Israel over its actions in Gaza, such as Spain and Ireland, should be prepared to accept those who were displaced.

The Israelis have even mooted the idea of sending displaced Palestinians to the Puntland State of Somalia.

The situation in the Middle East region and for its peoples currently looks dire. We have the decidedly unstable situation in Syria following the absolute rule assumed by Ahmed al-Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces, backed by neighbouring Turkey, and the very real risk of internal bloodshed and conflict there, as well as the further encroachment onto Syrian sovereign territory by the Israeli forces; the devastation and continuing instability following the war in Lebanon; and the residual threat of Israel, either alone or along with the US, taking another strike at Iran and the horrific consequences that would likely entail. And we must not overlook Israel’s repeated insistence on its right to return to its war of annihilation in Gaza.

We believe that it is imperative that the international community, especially the active countries in its institutions, fulfil their obligations to implement all international resolutions pertaining to Palestine as a matter of urgency. 

This necessitates the withdrawal of Israel from all territories it has illegally occupied since 1967, especially the Palestinian territories, enabling the Palestinian people to determine their interests on their land as well as establish their independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of refugees in accordance with Resolution 194.

If it is true that the whole world desires peace in Palestine and the Middle East as well as the respecting of international laws and conventions, which the US and Israel openly and flagrantly violate, then surely the time has come for due consideration to be given to the building of an international coalition that effectively moves to isolate the US for as long as it continues with its belligerent and bullying stance — just as it appeared the world was beginning to do with Israel over the last 15 terrible months.

Aqel Taqaz is International Secretary of the Palestinian People’s Party.