Standing with Israel’s visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press meet on February 5, 2025, US President Donald Trump spoke about taking over and owning Gaza and resettling Gaza’s Palestinian population elsewhere.

The February 5 comments, which he read from a text prepared for him by someone — since he normally ad-libs — have therefore been taken seriously by concerned world leaders within and outside the Middle East. His Gaza Plan, or what many now describe sardonically as his ‘Riviera Plan’, has since been roundly dismissed and condemned by virtually everyone except Israel’s far right.

After the negative international reaction, administration officials tried to walk back some of what he said, especially in relation to expelling Gazans and resettling them in Egypt, Jordan or even Somaliland, clarifying that any such resettlement would be temporary.

Trump torpedoed that effort by doubling down the next day and stated that “This [Gaza Plan] was not a decision made lightly. Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent.”

What should one make of it? The plan is morally reprehensible, of course. Any attempt to implement it would violate several provisions of international law, which we shall refer to in due course; forced displacement is considered ethnic cleansing. The plan has no details and lacks sinews. So why should anyone be worried about it if it is so outlandish and is dead on arrival?

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