On Tuesday, January 4 Donald Trump announced his plan for the Gaza Strip. When taking questions with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Trump said, “We’ll own it, We have the opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. The Riviera of the Middle East.”
This comment is referring to Gaza’s strip natural beauty and how Trump would like to make it into a resort town. This would displace the two million Palestinians who live there currently. These comments show the true nature of the president. Although he can be helpful, his idea has significant drawbacks.
Trump is a businessman, deal maker not a humanitarian. He is trying to support business interests instead of looking out for the people in the area. The problem is that it is their beautiful land not ours. It is the Palestinians’ people to enjoy, not his wealthy billionaire friends. Not everything is a deal to be made or an angle to explore – some things are about human rights.
The Arab Americans who voted for Mr. Trump of course are disappointed but no one is shocked. In Dearborn Michigan -a majority Arab American city- Donald Trump won over Kamala Harris by six percentage points. His anti war rhetoric was a sign of hope for a discouraged people. Yet when election time is over, Palestinians have been let down again. No matter who the president is, this happens. The reason for this is because of profit.
Most westerners and Americans see Palestine as a place of people who worship a silly God, speak a strange language, and support terrorists. They can claim they view Palestinians as humans, but their actions speak to the contrary.
In 2023 the IDF(Israeli Defense Force) referred to Palestinians as roaches and something that must be exterminated. We in the United States protect this by funding the extermination, and Trump’s latest rhetoric states that Palestinians are viewed as subhuman.
No matter if there is a Democratic or Republican president, Palestinians will be used, abused, murdered, tortured. The reasons are simple; because killing them is profitable, stealing from them is profitable, legislating against them is profitable.
Americans have set up a narrative to justify this mistreatment. If Palestinian land is beautiful and profitable to America, it is just like Native American land before it. It’s something to be taken and the people on it are to be exterminated. There is no care from Americans because it is far away and they are different. There is no empathy and when college kids protest we call them, spoiled, woke, terrorist supporting, and Anti American.
If standing up for the rights of others who have been in oppression for generations is Anti American then I am 100% anti American, but I don’t believe it is. Actually it is uniquely American because unlike many other countries, we have corrected ourselves before and we can do it again. All it takes is a few people who are willing to stand up and fight for what they know to be true. The amazing thing about this country is that when the government is harming other people, I can still write this.
We have a first amendment. We must use it. Our country can course correct and do better, but we have to first stand up to this idea of turning an entire country into a Trump Resort. We must entertain an idea we humans are not very good at, if an area is beautiful and profitable it is for the local people to enjoy, not the person with the biggest guns.
We have the opportunity to yet again make ourselves a shining city on a hill or we could fall back into being the country of imperialism, manifest destiny, and oppression.
