Ebad Ahmed
05 February 2025•Update: 05 February 2025
COPENHAGEN, Denmark
US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to other countries and to place the Palestinian enclave under the US control is “unlawful, immoral, and completely irresponsible,” said the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory on Wednesday.
Speaking at a news conference in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, Francesca Albanese condemned the proposal and warned that it would worsen the regional crisis.
“It’s unlawful, immoral and completely irresponsible … what he proposes is nonsense,” Albanese said.
“It’s incitement to commit forced displacement, which is an international crime,” she added.
Albanese urged the international community to take a stronger stance, saying: “The international community consists of 193 states, and this is the time to give the US what it has been looking for – isolation,” she said.
Albanese dismissed the notion that economic incentives could resolve the long-standing conflict in the Middle East.
“For too long, the international community has treated the issue of Palestine as something that can be managed through development, economic incentives, and humanitarian aid,” she said. “Frankly, it doesn’t work.”
While acknowledging the importance of economic growth, she insisted that it cannot come at the expense of fundamental rights. “Peace through economic development is an expectation of surrender, and it will not work.”
“The only way to stop the violence is to give peace a chance through freedom,” Albanese stressed.
President Donald Trump earlier on Tuesday night in a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the "US will take over the Gaza Strip," shortly after suggesting a permanent resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza.
"We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, (and) create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area," Trump said.
During a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday, Trump said that the US “will take over” Gaza after relocating Palestinians elsewhere under a redevelopment plan that he claimed could turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Türkiye, Jordan and Egypt as well as other regional and European countries, including the UK, France and Germany, have rejected Trump's relocation proposal.
