Trump Targets Palestinians as Alleged War Criminal Netanyahu Visits US | Palestine Policy Roundup 02.10.25
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Chuy Garcia: “Millions of Palestinians in Gaza have lost everything—families, homes, futures. Trump talks about ‘taking over’ like he's trying to build another failed casino. This isn’t a business deal—it’s people’s lives. We should be looking for peace, not another occupation.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “This president is openly calling for ethnic cleansing while sitting next to a genocidal war criminal [Benjamin Netanyahu]. He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “Suggesting the ethnic cleaning & permanent displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is disgusting & unacceptable, @POTUS. This is a genocide & we should be focused on rebuilding & restoring peace. NOT contributing to the trauma, death, & destruction of the Palestinian people.”
Rep. Al Green: “Ethnic cleansing is not a joke, especially when it emanates from the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, when he has the ability to perfect what he says. Ethnic cleansing in Gaza is no joke, and the prime minister of Israel should be ashamed knowing the history of his people…Injustice in Gaza is a threat to justice in the United States of America”
Rep. Delia Ramirez: “We cannot be silent while American billionaires make plans to build luxury condos on the graves of Palestinian children. The casual nature with which Trump openly speaks about ethnically cleansing and colonizing Gaza is a clear showing of who he is and a damning indictment of American foreign policy.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP CALLS FOR ETHNIC CLEANSING, FORCED DISPLACEMENT OF PALESTINIANS FROM GAZA
As President Donald Trump welcomed alleged war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House last Tuesday, he advocated for the forcible displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and a US occupation of the Palestinian territory several times during and after their meeting.
Trump’s comments are the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing, and were criticized by many international leaders. Israeli ministers, however, welcomed the proposal, raising concerns that the Israeli military may move forward with well-known plans to forcibly transfer Palestinians out of Gaza. In response to the comments, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israeli military to devise a plan for Palestinians to leave Gaza.
This plan put forward by Trump could amount to a war crime or a crime against humanity and would violate decades of UN resolutions that affirm the rights of Palestinians to remain on their land in the occupied territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the right of Palestinian refugees expelled during the Nakba in 1948 to return to their homes. Such a plan would also violate the Fourth Geneva Convention.
In response to Trump’s comments, many Palestinians highlighted their connection to Gaza and refused to make way for yet another phase in the ongoing Palestinian Nakba. Speaking to The Guardian, Abu Firas said: “We would rather die here than leave this land. No amount of money in the world can replace your homeland.” As he walked back to northern Gaza, Ramz told The Guardian: “In the end, despite all this destruction we will stay here on our land to live and die with dignity.” Abu Elaish, a Palestinian health care worker in Gaza, told the Associated Press: “We don’t want a repeat of our ancestors’ tragedy.”
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Mustafa al-Gazzar, a survivor of the Nakba, told the Associated Press: “You think you’ll expel me abroad and bring other people in my place? I would rather live in my tent, under rubble. I won’t leave. Put that in your brain. Instead of being sent abroad, I should return to my original land where I was born and will die.”
Let’s be clear: while Trump’s comments fit into his expansionist MAGA agenda, which includes threats to also invade and occupy Canada, Greenland, and Panama, the groundwork for this was laid by the Biden administration. It was Biden who originally put in a line item in his supplemental appropriations request to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians who would be forced beyond the borders of Palestine.
📺 WATCH a video report published by The Guardian that features the reactions of Palestinians in Gaza to Trump’s ethnic cleansing comments.
🌐 ALLEGED WAR CRIMINAL WELCOMED TO THE WHITE HOUSE AS TRUMP TARGETS UNRWA, ICC, AND MORE
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces arrest by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza, became the first foreign leader to visit the United States during President Donald Trump’s second term. As the alleged war criminal arrived, President Trump signed several executive orders that fit into his extremist MAGA agenda by disengaging from international institutions while also shielding Israel from accountability.
The Trump administration withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council because it seeks to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses of the Palestinian people. Israel subsequently also withdrew from the council.
The Trump administration also permanently cut US funding for UNRWA, the critical relief agency responsible for providing much of the desperately needed aid delivered to Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. The US has historically been the largest donor to the agency.
This action comes on the heels of Israel’s ban on the agency, which has severely impacted its ability to carry out its mission. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini reported last week that the ban poses an existential threat to the agency; the scope of its operations in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza has been reduced because of it.
While these actions are undoubtedly a part of Trump’s MAGA agenda, President Joe Biden laid the groundwork for them when his administration did not seek another term on the council and suspended US funding to UNRWA without due process after unproven Israeli allegations were made against agency employees in Gaza.
Later in the week, the Trump administration issued another executive order that placed sanctions and visa restrictions on ICC officials and family members who assisted in investigations of US citizens or its allies, including against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The executive order comes after Democrats blocked a similar sanctions bill from passing a key Senate vote.
The sanctions are yet another attempt to shield alleged war criminals Netanyahu and Gallant from accountability at the ICC. Instead of holding them accountable for their alleged genocidal crimes in Gaza, the sanctions undermine the principle of international justice. All of last week’s actions also advance the extremist MAGA agenda of limiting accountability for alleged crimes, both domestic and international.
📖 LEARN MORE: Check out the IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo on the ICC sanctions bill and how it fits into the extremist MAGA agenda being pushed by Congressional Republicans.
❌ TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SENDS MORE THAN $7 BILLION IN WEAPONS TO ISRAEL
On Friday, the Trump administration chose to bypass the informal notification process, thereby circumventing committee oversight of weapons transfers, by formally notifying Congress of another tranche of weapons to Israel. This new package–valued at approximately $7.4 billion in American taxpayer funds–comes on the heels of President Trump’s repeated threats of ethnic cleansing directed at Palestinians in Gaza.
The weapons included in this latest package have been used in several apparent war crimes committed by the Israeli military in Gaza. The package includes $6.75 billion in Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits, so-called small diameter bombs, 500-pound bombs, and an additional $660 million in Hellfire missiles.
In May 2024, the Israeli military used a US-supplied GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb in an attack on Rafah, where at the time 1.3 million Palestinians were taking shelter–many of whom were displaced by Israel’s assault on Gaza. That attack killed 45 Palestinians and injured 200 more after a fire broke out following Israel’s use of the weapon.
In July 2024, the Israeli military struck the so-called humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi, killing more than 90 Palestinians and injuring hundreds more despite telling Palestinians to go to this zone to escape the carnage of its assault elsewhere. The tail fin of a US-supplied JDAM kit was found at that site.
An Israeli airstrike on a health clinic in Gaza City in June 2024 killed five people, including Hani al-Jaafarawi, Gaza’s director of ambulances and emergency. Al-Jaafarawi was the 500th medical worker killed by Israel since October 2023. The rocket motor of a US-supplied Hellfire missile was recovered at the site of the airstrike.
According to the American Friends Service Committee, Israel uses US-supplied MK-82 500-pound bombs “extensively” in its attacks against Palestinians in Gaza.
By sending these weapons to Israel, the Trump administration will violate US and international law and would deepen US complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza should Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu follow through on his vow to resume it.
Congress can prevent the delivery of these weapons by introducing and passing Joint Resolutions of Disapproval.
💣 TRUMP NOTIFIES CONGRESS OF AN ADDITIONAL $1 BILLION WEAPONS PACKAGE TO ISRAEL
Prior to this formal notification, the Trump administration also reportedly informally notified Congress of yet another weapons package being sent to Israel–this time valued at $1 billion in American taxpayer funds. The package includes 4,700 1,000-pound bombs and Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers, the latter of which has historically been used by Israel to illegally destroy houses in the West Bank and Gaza as part of Israel’s agenda of forcible displacement.
These weapons only contribute to the threats posed to the ceasefire agreement that has temporarily ended Israel’s assault on Gaza; Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to resume Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Trump also recently released 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, and in its final months, the Biden administration also informally notified Congress of $8.7 billion in weapons transfers despite Israel’s record of using US weapons in apparent war crimes in violation of US law.
Congress reportedly placed a hold on this Trump administration weapons package following the informal notification, temporarily pausing formal notification as the “Four Corners” exercised its oversight authority. Should the Trump administration also attempt to circumvent committee oversight as it did in 2018 and last Friday, Members of Congress also can block the delivery of these weapons through Joint Resolutions of Disapproval as well.
IN THE NEWS
🖊️ IMEU POLICY PROJECT POLICY DIRECTOR PUBLISHES OP-ED IN RESPONSE TO TRUMP’S ETHNIC CLEANSING COMMENTS
The day after President Trump made his comments calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza, IMEU Policy Project’s Policy Director Josh Ruebner published a response in an op-ed in The Hill. Ruebner responded to President Trump's immoral assertion that there is "no alternative" to the ethnic cleansing of more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza.
In fact, there is an alternative: it's for Palestinians to live in freedom in their homeland and for Palestinian refugees exiled by Israel more than 75 years ago to be allowed to return home.
📖 READ Josh Ruebner’s op-ed in The Hill.
⚖️ 1,000 DAYS WITHOUT JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN JOURNALIST SHIREEN ABU AKLEH
Last week marked 1,000 days since Israel’s killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, who was reporting for Al Jazeera in the West Bank city of Jenin when an Israeli sniper deliberately shot and killed her. Shireen was wearing a helmet and a clearly marked press vest and was away from any clashes when she was shot. As she lay on the ground after she was shot, her colleagues were also shot at as they tried to help her.
After she was killed, Israeli authorities lied about Shireen’s killing. Multiple independent investigations published since have refuted Israel’s narrative and revealed that the Israeli sniper deliberately fired on Shireen and her colleagues. These investigations also found that the sniper was able to tell that there were journalists in the area.
In the 1,000 days since she was killed, the Biden administration refused to hold Israel accountable despite the fact that Shireen was an American citizen. The Biden administration also refused to hold Israel accountable for killing two other Americans, Omar Asad and Ayşenur Eygi.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
🏠 ISRAELI MILITARY DESTROYS A NEIGHBORHOOD IN JENIN AS WEST BANK INVASION CONTINUES
23 buildings in the Jenin refugee camp were deliberately destroyed after the Israeli military reportedly rigged explosives and detonated them, displacing families as Israel’s invasion of the West Bank continues. This destruction undoubtedly added to the 26,000 Palestinians who have been displaced from their homes by Israeli military assaults on Jenin and Tulkarem.
Large parts of the Jenin refugee camp have reportedly been destroyed by Israeli detonations. The Israeli army has reportedly continued to carry out home demolitions in Jenin, displacing more than 90% of the camp’s population. Tulkarem Governor Abdullah Kamil reported to Al Jazeera that 85% of the population of the refugee camp there has been displaced.
📷 PHOTOS: Photographers in Jenin and elsewhere in the West Bank captured the devastation caused by the Israeli army.
This destruction and displacement is part of a larger invasion by the Israeli military across the West Bank launched just days after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza went into effect. 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in 2025, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Among those killed are a 73-year-old man who was shot in Jenin on February 2nd and Laila Al-Khatib, a 2-year-old girl who was shot by an Israeli sniper in Jenin as her mother was feeding her. While the invasion has focused on Jenin, the Israeli military is also displacing and killing Palestinians elsewhere in the West Bank, including in Tammun, Qalqilya, Nablus, and Jericho.
⛑️ DEATH TOLL FROM ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE IN GAZA RISES TO NEARLY 62,000 TO ACCOUNT FOR MISSING PALESTINIANS
Palestinian authorities in Gaza have updated the death toll from Israel’s genocide in the occupied territory to 61,709 to account for the more than 14,000 missing Palestinians who are believed to be trapped under the rubble of Israel’s destruction or are in other areas inaccessible to rescuers and presumed dead. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed directly by the Israeli military during its assault on Gaza.
This update confirms earlier warnings that the official death toll was likely an undercount caused by Israel’s devastation in Gaza. A recent study published in The Lancet found that as of June 30, 2024, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza likely undercounted the true death toll by 41% due to the likely actual impact of Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s medical infrastructure and indiscriminate bombing across the occupied territory.
Photo: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain (File URL), via Wikimedia Commons.