Gaza plan fills Palestinian community with 'dread'

Mussa Hijaz said Donald Trump's plan to take over the Gaza strip was "completely nuts" but unsurprising.

Transcript

00:00The statement, although shocking, is not entirely unexpected, however it's shocking in the sense

00:07that it's calling for the ethnic cleansing of a group of people, openly, in contravention

00:15of the Geneva Convention.

00:17What is being proposed is that the population of Gaza would be removed from the Gaza Strip

00:21into adjoining countries, and that is something that specifically contravenes Article 49 of

00:29the Geneva Convention.

00:30For the people of Gaza to be removed, that is the only way they're going to be removed,

00:33and given the resilience, the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and the people of

00:37Gaza, they are not going to go voluntarily, which is why I say, I would expect that the

00:45genocide that has paused briefly over the last 10 days or so would commence, would recommence

00:50in earnest.

00:51The only way forward is for the Palestinians to be given the right of self-determination

00:56and the ability to occupy their own lands, and the idea that we have gone to a stage

01:02where we're openly calling for ethnic cleansing is, to be honest, quite shocking.

01:08The only way forward is for the Palestinians to be given the right of self-determination

01:12and the ability to live in their own land, and although this statement by Trump was not

01:17surprising, and the reason it wasn't surprising is because his first two actions in relation

01:22to the Gaza and the Palestinian situation was to first remove the restrictions or sanctions

01:29that have been placed on Israeli settlers that have been committed atrocities, particularly

01:32in the West Bank, and the second thing he did was to, there were some restrictions,

01:37albeit minor, on some weaponry not being transferred to Israel, and he removed that restriction

01:43immediately upon him being sworn in.

01:45So this next action is, although shocking, is not unsurprising.

01:51In 75 years, arguably 100, and they will continue to resist.

01:55The resistance will be called something else, but you can be guaranteed as soon as that

01:58resistance comes into effect, it will be labelled as, they will be labelled as terrorists irrespective

02:03of whoever they are, and in order to continue this dehumanisation of the Palestinian people.

02:10I think it's incumbent upon every government, the Australian government included, to immediately

02:17speak out about this because, as I said at the outset, this is calling for ethnic cleansing

02:23and a breach of the Geneva Convention openly.

02:25It's not, they're not hiding it anymore.

02:29Trump is behaving exactly the same as the way the Israelis did whilst they were committing

02:32the genocide in Gaza.

02:34They were broadcasting it to the world because they were allowed to act with impunity, and

02:38now we're seeing the same thing.

02:41No one is any longer hiding their intentions in relation to what they want to be done with

02:46the Palestinian people, whether it's the Israelis wanting to commit genocide on them

02:50or now Trump wanting to ethnically cleanse them, both war crimes.