On Saturday, Egypt condemned the Israeli statements targeting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which it described as “irresponsible and unacceptable”, considering that they represent an unacceptable transgression and a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations. Cairo affirmed that such statements constitute a direct infringement of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and security.
Egypt affirmed that the Kingdom represents a fundamental pillar of the region’s stability, and that any threat to its security is a red line that cannot be crossed. It stressed its full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and its support for it in the face of any attempts to undermine its security and stability.
Egypt also affirmed its rejection of any statements that go beyond settled diplomatic norms, and renewed its commitment to supporting legitimate Palestinian rights, including the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Cairo called on the international community to take a clear position on these statements, and to work to protect the region’s stability and security.
The Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, had said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 yesterday that “Saudi Arabia has enough space that could be allocated for establishing a state for the Palestinians”, according to what was reported by the Jerusalem Post.
When asked about the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state as a condition for normalising relations with Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu affirmed: “I will not sign any agreement that could endanger Israel.”
Over the past two weeks, the US President, Donald Trump, has set out to stir up wide controversy, coinciding with his issuing a series of statements that would confirm his efforts to implement his plan to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan, under the pretext of providing them with a safe haven, a plan he had previously put forward in 2020, during his first term, in what was known as the Deal of the Century, disregarding the official and popular position of Egypt and Jordan, which rejects emptying the Strip (which is home to around two million Palestinians) of its residents, and the return of hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s people to the north and the south, on foot, after the ceasefire took effect, despite the massive destruction. Trump then sprang a new surprise, in which he revealed the Israeli occupation’s intention to hand the Gaza Strip over to America after the fighting ends, revealing his aspirations for his country to have long-term ownership in the Strip.
Trump announced, in a post on Thursday on his Truth Social platform, that the Palestinians would already have been resettled in safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region, that there would be no need for American soldiers, that stability would return to the region, that the Palestinians would have the opportunity to live in happiness, safety and freedom, and that cooperation would begin with development teams to build one of the greatest and most spectacular development projects on earth, as he claimed. Trump had stated at a press conference with the Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation state, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday: “He expects the Gaza Strip, after America takes control of it, to become the Riviera of the Middle East”, while Netanyahu described Trump’s plan as a different idea worthy of attention that will change history, and said that he is the greatest friend of Israel in the White House.
In a political manoeuvre, the US President announced on Friday that he is in no hurry to implement his proposal for the United States to take control of the Gaza Strip and empty it of its residents in order to develop real estate projects there. Responding to a journalist, while receiving the Japanese Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, at the White House, who asked him about the White House’s timetable for implementing the proposal, Trump said: “The United States will actually view the matter as a real estate transaction in which we are investors in this part of the world, and there is no need to rush into doing anything at all”, claiming that he had not been talking about the participation of American forces on the ground.
Trump had announced, in press statements on 25 January, that he would ask the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, to allow between one million and one and a half million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to enter Egyptian territory, and that he had also asked the Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II, to take in more Palestinians, adding that he wished to cooperate with some Arab countries and build housing in a different location, so that they could live together in peace, claiming that he wants the people of Gaza to live without violence, in safe and comfortable areas, and describing Gaza as having been a hell for years. In response, local media outlets reported, quoting a high-level official source, that there was no truth to a phone call having taken place between the Egyptian and American presidents, and that any phone call by El-Sisi is announced, in accordance with the practice followed with heads of state, while the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed, in a statement at the time, Egypt’s continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land and their adherence to their legitimate rights to their land and homeland, its adherence to the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, and its rejection of any infringement of those inalienable rights, whether through settlement or the annexation of land, or by emptying that land of its owners through displacement or by encouraging the transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or in the long term.
In his comment on Trump’s statements, the Egyptian President described the displacement of the Palestinians as an injustice in which Egypt cannot take part, since the historical injustice done to the Palestinians and their earlier displacement will not be repeated again, and said that what is happening is an attempt to make life impossible in Gaza so that the Palestinians are displaced, reassuring the Egyptian people that there can never be any leniency towards, or permission for, any infringement of Egyptian national security, while at the same time he is determined to work with President Trump and wishes to achieve peace based on the two-state solution, considering that the solution to the Palestinian cause is not to remove the Palestinian people from their place, but the two-state solution and the creation of a Palestinian state, and that these are historical rights that cannot be bypassed.
El-Sisi said, during a press conference on 29 January, following the summit with his Kenyan counterpart in Cairo: “What do I say to Egyptian public opinion if the Palestinians are displaced to Egypt? If that happens, it means instability for Egyptian or Arab national security, and everyone must realise that in this region there is a nation that has a position on this matter, whether I stay in my post or leave, and if I asked Egyptians to accept this, they would all take to the streets to say: do not take part in this injustice”, affirming that Egypt’s position on the Palestinian cause is historic, and that it can never abandon the establishment of the Palestinian state and the preservation of that state’s components, especially its people and its territory.
The Egyptian House of Representatives had affirmed, at an emergency meeting on 27 January, Egypt’s position rejecting the displacement of the Palestinians, after the US President’s statements, and discussed the serious consequences of these attempts for the Palestinian cause and for Egyptian national security, expressing, in a statement , its support for the position of the political leadership, which consists of protecting Egyptian national security and the resources of the people of Egypt, and its firm commitment to Arab causes, foremost among them the Palestinian cause, amid extremely complex international entanglements that require wisdom and expertise in dealing with them.
Donald Trump, however, ignored the Egyptian rejection, affirming his insistence on his plan to “clean out Gaza”, as he claimed, in press statements on 30 January, that Egypt and Jordan would accept Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, because the United States had given them a great deal, adding: “They will do it.. they will absolutely do it.. we do a lot for them and they will do it”. In response to Trump’s statements, the Rafah land crossing saw thousands of demonstrators gather the following day, in a protest stand rejecting the displacement.
Meanwhile, the former National Security Minister of the occupation state and leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, welcomed Trump’s plan, calling on Netanyahu to begin implementing it immediately, and Israel’s Channel 12 claimed that Somaliland, Puntland and Morocco are the places the US administration has nominated to receive the Palestinians it wants to displace. In a statement , the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned on Thursday of the repercussions of statements by a number of members of the occupation government
on beginning to implement plans to displace the Palestinian people from their land, affirming that this constitutes a blatant and flagrant breach of international law and international humanitarian law and of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and affirming its complete rejection of these irresponsible statements, and that their continued issuance aggravates the already critical situation and puts the international community before a real test of its responsibilities to prevent the return of hostile practices that contradict the foundations of peace and stability in the region, stressing its total rejection of any proposal or vision aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause by uprooting the Palestinians and displacing them from their historical land, and seizing it in stages or permanently.
Covering up the economic crisis
Ambassador Rakha Ahmed Hassan, former Assistant Foreign Minister and member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, does not see Trump’s statements on displacement in isolation from a series of false statements that he deliberately makes to distract public opinion from the grinding economic crisis in the United States of America, and its withdrawal into isolation through decisions such as recalling 10,000 employees of the United States Agency for International Development to America so that their situation can be reviewed, with the possibility that most of them will be laid off, affirming that Trump does not abide by rules and standards, and puts forward whatever comes to his mind on air without study or consultation with his advisers and the parties concerned, disregarding political and diplomatic norms, as he did not discuss the matter with the Arab parties and the representatives of the Palestinian people, which led to an Arab and international position strongly rejecting Trump’s statements, and damaged the credibility of the United States when it speaks about human rights and the rights of peoples, which has led to an implicit retreat in official American statements on displacement.
Rakha tells Zawia3: “Trump is completely in line with the Israeli right-wing government and admires the destruction and genocide it carried out in Gaza; he considers it a great achievement and congratulated Netanyahu on it. I believe that the Palestinian resistance sent a strong message in response to Trump’s proposal, under the title “The Flood of the Day After”, during the prisoner handover ceremonies, to the effect that it is staying in the Strip and will govern it on the day after”, adding: “We hope that this will not affect the course of the ceasefire process, which was long delayed and for which Egypt made strenuous efforts.”
For her part, MP Ghada Agamy (member of the House of Representatives for Egyptians abroad) affirms to Zawia3 that Cairo does not accept bargaining over its land, that Egypt has had, throughout the ages, a commitment to the Palestinian cause and to the Palestinian people’s right to their land, and that it is convinced that the cause will not be resolved by moving the population from their land and bargaining with them over it.
The MP adds: “The displacement project is strongly rejected by the Egyptian people and by the members of parliament in their capacity as representatives of the people, and by the President and the government, and there is a consensus on this; the Palestinian cause must be resolved away from displacement and away from expanding the area of land controlled by the occupation.”
A plan that predates the Deal of the Century
Trump’s plan to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan has become the talk of the hour in political and party circles in Egypt; two weeks ago, the Civil Democratic Movement organised a conference in support of the Palestinian people at the headquarters of the Conservative Party, to confront Trump’s schemes, under the title “Palestine in the heart of every Egyptian”. Meanwhile, the former presidential candidate and leading figure in the Civil Movement, Hamdeen Sabahi, considers that emptying Palestine of its people is part of a plan that predates the Deal of the Century and goes back to the Zionist project since 1948, which is a tool in the hands of American hegemony, and that Trump is a servant of that project and will try to exert more pressure on Egypt, which is capable of resisting it, expressing the hope that the Arab popular movement will be a backer of the Palestinian cause, rejecting and confronting the Zionist-American aggression sponsored by Trump, and calling for the organisation of a broad movement that brings together diaspora Palestinians and everyone in the Arab nation who supports Palestinian rights.
He says, in statements to Zawia3: “This is an aggression against the Palestinian people and their inherent right to live in their homeland and liberate it from occupation, and an aggression against Egypt, Jordan and the entire Arab nation. We condemn Trump’s statements and stand against them with full resolve, we appreciate the official Egyptian and Jordanian rejection of them, and we call on the governments of the two countries and the Arab regimes not to falter on this issue, and for there to be a clear position by the living forces in the Arab world that rejects Trump’s efforts, supports the struggle of the Palestinian people and raises the slogan of the right of return endorsed by the United Nations, just as the people of Gaza returned to the north on foot and the Lebanese people returned to the south.”
The Coalition of Egyptian Parties, which comprises 42 political parties, had announced its categorical rejection of Trump’s statements on displacing the Palestinians to Egypt, considering, in an official statement, that those proposals represent a flagrant violation of Palestinian rights, contradict all international charters and resolutions of international legitimacy, violate the principles of human rights, and further complicate the situation in the region, which had seen calm thanks to Egyptian efforts to achieve a truce between the Israeli occupation and Hamas, affirming that the Palestinian territories are indivisible, and that any attempts to displace the Palestinians or liquidate their cause are completely rejected. Several Egyptian political parties, among them the New Wafd, the Conservatives, Al-Dostour, Bread and Freedom, the Socialist Popular Alliance, the Egyptian Social Democratic, the Free Egyptians, Tagammu, the Arab Nasserist Party, Homat Watan, and the National Front, also issued statements expressing their displeasure with and rejection of the US President’s proposal, considering it a flagrant infringement of the sovereignty of the Egyptian people, a violation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause, and calling for popular solidarity to stop the displacement schemes.
For his part, Abdel Sanad Yamama (former presidential candidate, head of the New Wafd Party and professor of international law at the Faculty of Law, Menoufia University) considers that Trump’s statements violate international law and the global international order based on the United Nations, violate rights and freedoms, and represent a flagrant assault on the rights of the Palestinian people settled in their territory, affirming that both the official authorities and the political parties in Egypt reject those statements and the very idea of displacement.
He tells Zawia3: “The Wafd was the first party to issue a statement denouncing and rejecting those statements, and expressing its support for the position of the political system rejecting the forced displacement of the Palestinian people, particularly since this represents an explicit assault on Egyptian sovereignty. We absolutely reject bargaining over our territorial sovereignty, and if the price of preserving our sovereignty and our freedom is the cutting off of American aid to Egypt, then we can do without it.”
Heading to the Rafah crossing
Following Trump’s announcement of his plan to displace the people of Gaza, which he unleashed on 25 January, Farid Zahran (former presidential candidate and head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party) launched an appeal to head to the Rafah land crossing to express popular rejection of the schemes to displace the Palestinian people and of Trump’s statements, and to affirm Egypt’s position supporting the Palestinian cause and rejecting its liquidation, a call to which a number of political forces responded, and in its wake thousands of citizens, young members of political parties and members of the tribes of Sinai gathered in front of the Rafah land crossing on 31 January.
Zahran tells Zawia3: “It can be said that Trump’s statements are a trial balloon, and that at the same time they cannot be separated from the Deal of the Century that he previously put forward in his first term. He holds a vision that goes beyond the two-state solution and leans towards liquidating the Palestinian cause, and his vulgar dictates will not necessarily be realised on the ground. Despite his considerable ability to impose those dictates, there is a great deal of room for joint pressure and many cards that can be used in the face of the United States’ pressure on the Egyptian administration, which it has been exerting for a long time and which is expected to increase in the coming period, because Trump’s logic and approach do not inspire optimism, but Egypt can confront it.”
The former presidential candidate considers that Trump uses vulgar language to impose dictates, in a manner befitting criminal gangs and not befitting the policies of states or the stature of a country like the United States, and that predicting where matters will end up is complex and multi-layered in itself and may involve concessions from some parties, but that it is possible to reach situations that do not meet the American dictates, affirming that the position of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party is in line with the Egyptian administration, which rejects the displacement scheme, and with what the Egyptian Foreign Minister and the President of the Republic have stated in this regard, and that there is an honourable national consensus rejecting those statements, which reflect an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause and an encroachment on Egyptian national sovereignty.
For her part, the actress Tayseer Fahmy (head of the Equality and Development Party) affirms that Egypt rejects Trump’s statements because it does not want to take part in liquidating the Palestinian cause through the exodus of Palestinians outside their homeland, a cause that will not die as long as the Palestinian people and the Arab peoples hold fast to Palestinian rights.
She tells Zawia3: “The most eloquent response to those statements is the magnificent scene of the Palestinians returning to northern Gaza on foot. Even though they know they are returning to the wreckage and rubble of their homes, they hold fast to their land, and this was the Palestinians’ response. It remains for the Arab peoples to respond through statements, protests and social media. We reject displacement so that the Palestinian cause is not liquidated, not out of a refusal to receive our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Egypt.”
Counsellor Mortada Mansour (former president of Zamalek Club and a lawyer) had announced that he had sent an official warning to the US Embassy in Cairo, in which he gave the US President a deadline of one week to retract his statements on the forced displacement of the Palestinians, failing which he would submit two official memoranda: the first to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accusing Trump of inciting the commission of a war crime, given that the forced displacement of populations is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and another memorandum to the International Court of Justice condemning Trump’s violation of international law, as he contravened the Charter of the United Nations, which stipulates the right of peoples to self-determination, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees every person freedom of movement and of residence within the borders of their state without forcible interference.
Syndicates reject displacement
At a time when the political forces affirmed their categorical rejection of Trump’s proposal to displace the Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, ten professional syndicates in turn announced their rejection of the statements and their support for the Egyptian position, considering that this proposal aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause, and that the scene of the marches of return is the greatest response to the attempts to liquidate the cause.
A statement issued by the syndicates of lawyers, engineers, doctors, journalists, acting professions, cinema professions, agriculturalists, commerce graduates, veterinarians and dentists, at a meeting held on 27 January at the Journalists Syndicate, said that what Trump proposed is not only a clear violation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and a disregard for the relevant international resolutions, which affirm the Palestinians’ right to establish their independent state on their land, but is also a contempt for the sovereignty of Egypt and Jordan, and represents a serious threat to the national security of the two Arab states.
The statement praised the position of the Palestinian people, their steadfastness, their attachment to their land, their refusal to leave it and their insistence on returning to their cities and villages despite the destruction that befell them as a result of the Israeli bombardment, which was manifested in the marches of return to the north of the Strip, affirming the Egyptian professional syndicates’ support for the official Egyptian position, which renewed its rejection of any infringement of inalienable Palestinian rights, whether through settlement or the annexation of land, or by emptying that land of its owners through displacement, or by encouraging the transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or in the long term, according to the Foreign Ministry’s statement, which warned that any delay in settling the Palestinian cause in a way that guarantees the establishment of the independent Palestinian state and the full and undiminished restoration of Palestinian rights portends a further spread of conflict in the region and undermines the chances of peace and coexistence among its peoples.
In their statement, the syndicates renewed their condemnation of international silence and complicity in the massacres committed against civilians in Gaza, and their demand that the Zionist war criminals be tried before the International Criminal Court, stressing that the crime of genocide, which was carried out with American assistance, will not be a gateway to completing the Zionist-American schemes to liquidate the cause and expel the Palestinian people from their land, calling on the international community, with its institutions and organisations, to shoulder its responsibilities in stopping the Israeli aggression and ending the occupation, and demanding that the countries of the world put pressure on the occupation state until the Palestinian people obtain their rights in full and undiminished.
The ten professional syndicates had announced, during a press conference at the Journalists Syndicate on 28 January, the organisation of a delegation of professional syndicates to the Rafah crossing to declare their support for the Palestinian struggle and their rejection of displacement attempts; their intention to send a letter signed by the heads of the syndicates and by the professional syndicates to the US Embassy, declaring their rejection and complete condemnation of the US President’s statements and their adherence to a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause that includes the reconstruction of Gaza and the Palestinians’ right to return to their land; sending letters to the United Nations, the European Commission and international organisations rejecting Trump’s statements and demanding international action to try the Zionist war criminals and pressure for a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause; opening the door to donations at the headquarters of the professional syndicates to support the Palestinian people, rebuild Gaza and support the Palestinians in remaining in the face of calls for displacement; hanging Palestinian flags and placards with the same content as the banner on the headquarters of the Egyptian syndicates, and on their websites and social media pages, to reject displacement and support the Palestinian people; as well as coordination between the various syndicates, the Bar Association and the Arab Lawyers Union to take action to try the Zionist war criminals, and the various syndicates hosting solidarity events at their headquarters to declare their rejection of displacement, with continued communication between the syndicates on joint events to be announced, calling on Egyptian newspapers, websites and channels to publish a permanent banner on their front pages, home pages and on their screens rejecting displacement (Yes to reconstruction, no to displacement, return is a right, freedom for Palestine).
While political analysts see Donald Trump’s statements on displacing the Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan as inseparable from Trump’s efforts in support of the Zionist project and the liquidation of the Palestinian cause, which he had previously expressed in the framework of his proposal to implement the “Deal of the Century” during his first term, some consider them no more than a trial balloon with which he is starting his second term, to gauge official and popular reactions in the two countries and in the Arab region in general. Political, parliamentary and syndicate circles in Egypt are unanimous in rejecting the schemes to displace the Palestinian people and infringe on Egyptian sovereignty, and while they expect the US administration to resort to imposing new pressures on Egypt to implement Trump’s proposal, the bet remains on popular action and on the political and diplomatic authorities using all the cards they hold to confront American pressure, particularly since Egypt has previously confronted earlier schemes to displace the residents of Gaza, which began in 1970, when the Israeli occupation planned to displace them to the Egyptian city of El-Arish, and were repeated in 2005, and were rejected by the late President Hosni Mubarak.
Editorial correction: The first version of the report stated that Trump made his statements on moving Gaza’s Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan on 25 December, and that the gathering in front of the Rafah crossing took place on 31 December; the correct dates are that the statements were made on 25 January 2025 and the gathering took place on 31 January 2025, as stated elsewhere in the report.
