LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Trump stunned Arab allies to the U.S. along with Palestinian leaders this weekend when he suggested that Palestinians in Gaza go to Jordan and Egypt.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You're talking about probably a million and a half people. And we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries, it's had many, many conflicts inside. And I don't know, something has to happen.
FADEL: Jordan's foreign minister publicly said it would refuse the displacement of Palestinians to Jordan. Palestinian groups called it a red line, and the Arab league said uprooting Palestinians from their land would be ethnic cleansing. But it is a proposal that's popular with the far right in Israel. To discuss this, we're joined by Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Good morning and thanks for being on the program.
KHALED ELGINDY: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
FADEL: So in Trump's statement over the weekend, he said it could be temporary or long-term. If this is adopted as policy, how much of a departure is it for the U.S.?
ELGINDY: I think it's fairly a major departure. I mean, this is not a new idea, that Palestinians be relocated elsewhere, but it's pretty new coming from a sitting U.S. president. And in that sense, it's quite alarming.
FADEL: I mean, we even heard some concern from one of Trump's Senate allies, Republican Lindsey Graham. He said on CNN that the suggestion was not overly practical. And then I'm going to play you what Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said to me a few months ago about why Jordan hadn't and wouldn't take war refugees from Gaza.
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AYMAN SAFADI: Israel is making Gaza unlivable and inhabitable, and therefore it has a policy of emptying Gaza of its people. And we simply will not allow that to happen because that will only put the region on a course towards more destruction and future wars.
FADEL: Do you agree with that statement?
ELGINDY: Yeah, I think so. I think actually he's been quite diplomatic. I mean, it would be extraordinarily destabilizing for those countries that receive Palestinian refugees and, frankly, even for Israel. It would, I think, bring decades of conflict to displace Palestinians. I mean, this is the root cause of the Israel-Palestine conflict to begin with, and that is the mass displacement of Palestinians from their land and homes in 1948. And so if you want to perpetuate the conflict into the future indefinitely, this would be the way to do that.
FADEL: Now, Jordan and Egypt have made clear for a long time that they wouldn't want the mass displacement of Palestinians into their country, but they depend on the U.S. for foreign aid. Could this be something that the president could pressure these two U.S. allies into?
ELGINDY: It could be. And of course, it's the sort of thing that Donald Trump - has used that kind of pressure with Arab allies in the past. I don't think it would work. I mean, it's not a new idea. The Israeli far right, including members of Netanyahu's coalition, have been agitating for exactly this scenario for some time, particularly in the last 15 months. But it's always been firmly rejected. If there were a price for Egypt and Jordan, it would've happened by now. It would've been achieved.
FADEL: Now, we also heard Elise Stefanik, Trump's pick for U.N. ambassador, and his pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, say they believe Israel has a biblical right to the occupied West Bank, which is seen by Palestinians as part of their future state. Taken together, what does all of this say about the Trump administration's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
ELGINDY: Yeah, and it's not just seen by Palestinians. It's seen by the entirety of the international community...
FADEL: The international community, yeah.
ELGINDY: ...As occupied territory and that Palestinians are entitled to have a right to self-determination in their homeland. So I think it is pretty alarming. I mean, the United States is not a theocracy. Religious scripture, religious ideas are not a sound basis for making foreign policy. And I think it's not a good sign that these individuals are part of the Trump administration.
FADEL: Khaled Elgindy is a visiting scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Thank you for your time and your insights.
ELGINDY: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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