The Turkish Defense Ministry has criticized US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians in other countries, calling it an “irrational, unserious and legally baseless” plan, joining other critics in Turkey and in the international community, the Anka news agency reported.
Trump said last week he would make the war-battered territory “unbelievable” by removing unexploded bombs and rubble and redeveloping it.
He did not elaborate on how he would move more than 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza.
The US president announced his proposal at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hailed it as “the first good idea that I’ve heard” on what to do with the tiny war-torn territory.
Rear Adm. Zeki Aktürk, spokesperson for the ministry, said during a press briefing on Thursday that after “brutally massacring” thousands of Palestinians, Israel continues to violate international law and make decisions and statements that undermine peace and a ceasefire.
Aktürk said it is essential for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders to be implemented in order to put an immediate end to the “oppression of Palestinians, who are subjected to irrational, frivolous and legally baseless” plans seeking their displacement to other countries beyond their own lands, Aktürk said, referring to Trump’s proposal.
The two-state solution is a proposed framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing two independent states — Israel, within secure and recognized borders, and Palestine, based on pre-1967 borders, which refer to the territorial lines before Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.
The statement from the ministry comes after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called Trump’s plan “unacceptable” last week, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, one of the most outspoken critics of Israeli actions in Gaza, said on Sunday that no one had the power to remove Gazans from their war-devastated homeland, dismissing the proposal.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and an ally of Erdoğan, also expressed strong opposition to the plan on Monday, saying the proposal to “seize and take control of Gaza mafia-style is a ticking time bomb.” He also referred to the plan as “the oppressive tyranny of imperialist looting.”
Trump’s resettlement idea has prompted accusations that he is planning ethnic cleansing and has drawn condemnation from the UN, human rights groups and Arab leaders, according to a BBC report on February 6.
Under international law, attempts to forcibly transfer populations from occupied territory are strictly prohibited.