Trump son-in-law calls for Gaza ethnic cleansing
The Trump family, this time the former President’s son in law, were once again on the side on controversy over inflammatory comments made on Gaza, The Guardian reported on March 19.
Jared Kushner called for the expulsion of the besieged Palestinian enclave’s 2.2 million population whilst also claiming that Gaza’s “waterfront property could be very valuable”
Kushner, who married Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2009 and was an advisor to the maverick Republican on Middle Eastern issues, made the comments during an interview at Harvard University on February 15. The video was posted earlier this month on YouTube.
The interview on 15 February was briefly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters who raised banners calling him a “nepo-genocider”.
Mr Kushner called for the Gazan population to be kicked out and moved to the Sinai Desert in Egypt and/or the Negev Desert in southern Israel.
His remarks are more or less in line with far-right Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s position, who touted the idea of shipping the people of Gaza to the Sinai Desert, it was revealed in a leaked Israeli government report at the end of October last year.
It is understood that Kushner and the Israeli Prime Minister had a close friendship during the 1990s and the latter was often welcomed in the Kushner household when on trips to New York.
READ: Will Trump end the war in Gaza?
Calling for ethnic cleansing and a total pummeling of the enclave, the ex-US official added, “It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.”
His divisive remarks caused a barrage of outrage. The Intercept journalist Ben Norton angrily pointed out, “Donald Trump’s son-in-law proposed ethnically cleansing Palestinians out of Gaza, saying Israel should clean up’ the strip, then salivated over the ‘very valuable’ potential of Gaza’s ‘waterfront property’.”
Political commentator Ron Filipkowski joked on X (formerly Twitter) that the “best thing about protesting Biden by not voting for him in 2024 is that Jared gets to build condos in Kushnerstan in 2025, formerly known as Gaza”.
Palestinian foreign policy analyst and professor Rula Jebreal commented, “Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner openly advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza: Saying Israel should bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and deport 2.2 million Palestinians there… ,”
Kushner’s comments have again raised questions about what an already widely criticised US policy on the Middle East would look like under a Trump Presidency, which should most definitely not be ruled out given current polling.
Since Hamas’ attacks on October 7, the former President has painted himself as more pro-Israel than the current administration and in a recent interview with Trump-friendly Fox News, he called on Israel to “finish the problem” and added, “You had a horrible invasion (referring to October 7) that took place that would have never happened if I was president.” whilst seemingly evading a question on whether the US should back a ceasefire or not.
Since October, Israel has killed 32,000 civilians in Gaza, a large percentage of whom were women and children.
The Guardian/ The Intercept
