The world is in uproar over former US President Donald Trump's recent announcement, in which he made several bold and controversial claims about the future of Gaza. Among his statements: "The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too." He also proposed that Egypt and Jordan absorb displaced Palestinians.
Some analysts have described Trump's tactics as "professional bluffing" – making grandiose statements to pressure others into action. Yet many families of released Israeli hostages credit Trump's threats that "all hell will break out" if hostages weren't returned before he takes office as a key factor in securing their loved ones' release.
Although Trump is confident that Egypt and Jordan will bow to his demands, history suggests otherwise. For both countries, absorbing Palestinian refugees has always been a red line. Despite their reliance on US aid and military support – leverage that Trump could exploit – Egypt, Jordan, and three other Arab states have outright rejected the idea of taking in Gazans.
Arab nations have a long history of abandoning Palestinians in their most desperate moments. After losing the West Bank and Gaza to Israel in the 1967 war, they largely washed their hands of responsibility. More recently, in October 2023, when Israel waged war against Hamas, not a single neighboring Arab country granted refuge to fleeing Gazans. Yet the world continues to place sole responsibility for the Palestinian refugee crisis on Israel, while ignoring Egypt and Jordan's role.
I do not support forced displacement of any people. However, Palestinians who wish to escape war-torn Gaza and build better lives for themselves should be allowed to do so – and Egypt and Jordan have a responsibility to facilitate that. After all, both countries once ruled over Palestinian territories and violently suppressed Palestinian nationalism.
During Jordan's occupation of the West Bank (1948–1967), Palestinian political parties were banned, activists were arrested, and any expression of Palestinian self-determination was crushed. In 1960, King Hussein dissolved the Palestinian-dominated West Bank legislature and censored the media to prevent nationalist sentiment from taking hold. The Hashemite Kingdom operated under the belief that Palestinians and Jordanians were one people, which is why it lives in perpetual fear that an influx of hundreds of thousands more Palestinians would destabilize the country.
Egypt, for its part, never wanted a Palestinian state that could threaten its national security. When it controlled Gaza, it imposed restrictions on the local population and prevented any move toward sovereignty. After Hamas took over the Strip, Egypt reinforced its blockade on Gaza, proving that its concerns have never been about Palestinian liberation – only its own interests.
For too long, Egypt and Jordan have played a significant role in Palestinian suffering while escaping accountability. It is time for the international community to hold them responsible and pressure them to play a real role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While Egypt and Jordan claim to champion the Palestinian cause, their actions tell a different story. The plight of the Palestinians has been weaponized as a political tool against Israel rather than addressed in a meaningful way.
Recently, the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE – along with a Palestinian official – sent a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, rejecting the transfer of Gazans and instead urging the Trump administration to support a two-state solution. The problem, however, is that based on current polling, Palestinians in Gaza have no interest in peace or a two-state solution. Their goal remains the destruction of Israel. We all know what "From the river to the sea" truly means. Rewarding their actions with statehood would be appeasement for jihadists.
Forced displacement is not the answer, but neither is clinging to failed diplomatic strategies while holding only Israel accountable for solving the Palestinian refugee crisis.
