Protests in Egypt against Trump plans to displace Gazans

Egyptian are preparing to stage nationwide protests in response to US President Donald Trump’s comments on seeking to “clear out” Gaza from its Palestinian population, and expel them to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.

A number of political parties including the Nation’s Future Party – affiliated with Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, the Homeland Defenders Party and the National Front, also associated with Egypt’s security services, will organise demonstrations from Friday.

The Youth Coordination Committee is also planning on participating. 

Sources told The New Arab’s Arabic-language site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that the demonstrations would be a display of Egypt’s rejection of Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Gazan.

Trump made the comments on Sunday, after he described Gaza – battered by 15 months of war – as a “demolition site”.

“You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen.”

“I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people,” he added.

On Monday, Trump reiterated his comments when speaking to reporters on Air Force One, saying he would like to “get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much”.

“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years,” Trump said. “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

When further pressed on the matter, Trump voiced confidence that Sisi and King Abdullah would “take some” Palestinians from the enclave.

“We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in… a rough neighbourhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too.”

Trump also claimed he had spoken with Sisi and King Abdullah on the matter, however, a senior official went on to deny on Tuesday that a phone call ever took place between the Egyptian leader and the recently re-elected US President.

Egypt’s foreign ministry issued a statement on Monday rejecting Trump’s comments, and expressed the country’s “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land”.

Cairo said it “rejected any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether by settlement or annexation of land or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term”.

The protests, according to the sources, will be held in various governorates in “a large, organised and controlled” manner, in a bid to stress “Arab and international solidarity with the Palestinian people”.

The plan to hold these protests comes as Egypt has arrested dozens of people who have demonstrated pro-Palestinian solidarity since the outbreak of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023. Since 2013, Egyptian authorities can legally “cancel, postpone or move” protests if they are deemed “in breach of the law”.

Egypt, despite having a pro-Palestinian stance and mediating between Israel and Hamas in ceasefire negotiations, has come under fire for not doing more to challenge Israel’s war and siege in the Gaza Strip, as the country shares a border with Gaza.

The country has also been criticised for exploiting Palestinians’ suffering as brokers on the Gaza-Egypt border have gone on to charge Palestinians thousands of dollars to help them leave the territory via Egypt.