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World leaders have widely and strongly condemned US President Donald Trump’s statements on Gaza this week. It’s an encouraging sign of support for international law, much needed in these dark times.
On Tuesday, Trump declared that the US would “take over” the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinian population there would need to be moved out. Trump said on Tuesday that Gaza had become “unlivable.”
He said this – remarkably – while standing next to the man whose government is responsible for making Gaza unlivable and who’s wanted by the International Criminal Court for atrocity crimes committed in Gaza: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It’s time for a quick refresher on the laws of war.
International humanitarian law prohibits the permanent forced displacement of the population of an occupied territory. When such forced displacement is carried out with criminal intent, it is a war crime. If carried out as part of widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population, reflecting state policy, it is a crime against humanity.
These things have already been happening in Gaza, of course.
Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have caused the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, many of them multiple times over. Senior Israeli officials have also declared their intent to displace the Palestinian population of Gaza.
Israeli authorities have also deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the Palestinian population in Gaza. This includes by deliberately depriving them of food, water, and other things necessary for their survival, amounting to the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.
The US government under Joe Biden supported the Israeli government throughout its assault on Gaza, particularly by its continued arms sales to Israel.
Trump’s new proposal, if implemented, would amount to an alarming escalation of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. It would also move the US from being complicit in war crimes (through arms sales) to direct perpetration of atrocities – from a supporting role to a leading role.
Recognizing the threat both to Palestinians and to international law, many were quick to reject Trump’s idea.
Palestinians balked, naturally. For them it was yet another case of outside powers discussing their fate while ignoring their opinions: “about us, without us,” once again.
But rejection was also immediate from many other corners, as well.
This included governments from neighboring countries and distant countries, and even governments that seem to agree on little else these days: Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Russia, and the United Kingdom, just to mention a few. Other global leaders like the UN human rights office and the UN secretary-general also condemned Trump’s proposal.
It’s not every day humanity hears the world’s most powerful man openly suggest committing mass atrocity crimes. Thank goodness, at least, the global rejection of it has been swift and clear.
