(WWJ) President Donald Trump is raising eyebrows and stirring up emotion over his proposed U.S. takeover of the Gaza Strip, which he mused could be transformed into a tourist destination.
Among Trump's political adversaries to swiftly reject the idea was U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, who called the idea "fanatical" in a social media post Tuesday night.
"Palestinians aren’t going anywhere," Tlaib wrote, in a post on X. "This president can only spew this fanatical bull**** because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing. It's time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up."
Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Feb. 4, Trump suggested the U.S. will take ownership of the Gaza Strip and revamp the war-torn territory (which land-wise is about the size of Detroit) into "the Riviera of the Middle East."
The move, Trump said, would include relocating some two million Palestinians who live in Gaza, which was destroyed throughout the last 15 months as a result of the Israel-Hamas war, resettling them in other countries yet to be determined.
"We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, [and] create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area," Trump said.
Speaking to WWJ Newsradio 950's Christina McDaniel on Wednesday, Imad Hamad, Executive Director of the American Human Rights Council, said Trump was clear that he wants to take this land from the Palestinian people.
"Gaza is not for sale," Hamad said. "And the Palestinian people own Gaza, own the West Bank. This is their historical land, and nobody can take it away."
Hamad said Trump's proposal also risks undermining the ceasefire in Gaza.
"He was loud and clear and straightforward," Hamad said. "He did not note any deference to Palestinians' basic right of a statehood. He is not talking about a two-state solution. He is not talking about a genuine process of peace."
On WCCO's Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar, Macalester (St. Paul) Professor of Political Science and International Andrew Latham said Trump's floated plan is absurd.
"We now face a two-state solution which has to be worked out," said Latham. "That's a political issue. Simply aspiring to turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East? I can think of a number of words that I would like to use, but I'll use the most polite one I could think of. It's silly."
Latham says this is an extremely complicated refugee situation Palestinians face, and throwing out ideas like this doesn't help fix a humanitarian crisis.
"To use American prosperity and power to facilitate this, we need to figure out a way to rehouse those two million people," Latham added. "But the idea that it's going to be a Mar-A-Lago on the Mediterranean, which is what he's implying, I think is madness."
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