Dr. Anne Irfan: Plans to expel Palestinians

President Donald Trump’s Gaza remarks align with historic plans to expel Palestinians, says UCL Middle East historian Dr. Anne Irfan

Transcript

00:00Does all of this sound to you like there is a carefully considered master plan or do you

00:05get the impression that President Trump is trying out various theories, various solutions

00:11and sort of venting them and seeing what the reaction's like?

00:15Well, I think it's important to keep in mind that whether or not Trump is being serious

00:22when he says this, there is a very long history of different plans and moves being made to

00:28try and expel the Palestinians en masse from Gaza in particular and Palestine in general.

00:34And even in what he said last week, when Trump talked last week about, he euphemistically

00:39talked about relocating the Palestinians, essentially expelling them, that already engenders

00:45and emboldens a whole pre-existing set of discourses and plans that have been around

00:51in Israel for a long time about forcibly taking the Gaza Strip.