We, the undersigned organizations, have followed over the last few days repeated statements made by The President of the United States - Donald Trump - calling for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. These were statements in which he echoed the discourse of right wing Israeli officials. It is also a direct consequence of Netanyahu's actions at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023 in which he presented a map which showed all Palestinian territories to be put under Israeli control. Furthermore, the occupation’s foreign ministry published, in early January 2025, a picture of a map that claimed more land under the ‘historical’ right of the Israeli state. This included parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. They published this on their official pages and on various social media sites. Additionally, a number of Israeli ministers and members of the Knesset made repeated statements with the same claim.

Simultaneously, the Israeli army has occupied Syrian land after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime and built military sites on occupied Syrian land. This was in preparation of setting up permanent stationing points on the Syrian land occupied  only recently - far beyond the 1967 occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.All these present and past violations break the 1974 disengagement agreement made with Syria, which was signed after the occupation’s defeat in the October 1973 war. 

The occupation’s government continues to delay its military withdrawal in order to retain control over specific areas of southern Lebanon. This is in spite of a ceasefire agreement that set the withdrawal of the occupation army from Lebanese land and territories by January 26th. This withdrawal date was extended until February 18th, while the occupation’s army demands that their forces maintain stationing points on Lebanese territory on a permanent basis. This is in addition to the state of Israel’s continued occupation of the Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon. 

These matters clearly demonstrate the occupation's expansionist and colonialist policies. They also are not simply slogans raised by a minority from within the occupation state, but rather the strategic directions of the occupation state as a whole. 

Promoting Forced Displacement is a Crime Against International Law

Forced displacement is defined within international law as the unlawful expulsion of a group of individuals, or a population, from their land without their consent. Forced displacement is considered a war crime as well as a crime against humanity. According to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the collective or individual forcible transfer or exile of people from their places of residence to other territories is prohibited, except in exceptional cases aimed at protecting the population from the dangers of armed conflict, while ensuring that they are provided with the right to return once the threats cease. 

Additionally, many international conventions criminalize forced displacement, most notably the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which considers forced displacement a war crime as well as a crime against humanity. Article 7(1)(d) states that forced removals constitute crimes against humanity if committed on a widespread or systematic basis against a civilian population. Article 8(2)(7) emphasizes that the deportation or forcible transfer of population is a war crime, as a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. 

International law has developed basic principles and guidelines for development-based expulsions and relocations.1 While maintaining that these expulsions and relocations be forced which is still a crime against humanity.2 The US president's statements are a clear violation of international law and an ongoing threat to human rights. It is also definitive encouragement of the state of Israel’s colonial-expansionist and forced displacement approach. This approach constitutes a clear violation of international law as well as an ongoing threat to the human rights of Palestinians. 

The History of Forced Displacement of Palestinians

After Resolution No. 181 was issued to partition Palestine in 1947, most of Palestine's historical land was taken away in favor of a ‘Jewish state’, as stated in the wording of the resolution. As a result, the Palestinians were confined to approximately 44% of Palestine, without regard to the population or the country at the time. Zionist gangs then began violent expulsions and forced expulsions throughout the land including parts that were not granted to them in the resolution. The peak of these expulsive massacres took place during the 1948 war, where about three-quarters of a million Palestinians were displaced from Palestinian cities, villages, and towns. This peak is referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba, meaning catastrophe in Palestinian Arabic, which resulted in the Zionist seizure of half of the 44% of Palestinian land that was allocated by Resolution No. 181.  

This left Palestinians limited to approximately 22% of Palestine. Moreover, during the June 5th, 1967 war, the Israeli state seized the entirety of Palestine, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. This confirms that the state of Israel's main strategy is colonial expansion and forced displacement. Despite the issuance of Security Council Resolution 242, which demanded a return to the pre-war borders of June 4th, the occupation refused to abide by that resolution and did not return an inch of the 22% of land the occupation seized illegally on June 5th. Consequently, the occupation surrendered only 15% of the Palestinian land they seized after being confronted by the military throughout the Sinai Peninsula as well as the Palestinian resistance’s assaults from Gaza. Ultimately, this left Palestinians with only 15% of their country. 

The undersigned organizations call on the international community, international bodies, and regional states to commit to supporting:

First: Reconstruction, Not Displacement:

The proposal to permanently displace Palestinians from Gaza, advocated by US President Donald Trump and embraced by the Zionist occupation state, is unjust. The international community should direct their efforts to ensure that the Zionist occupation’s aggression stops, that the unjust siege imposed on Gaza for nearly two decades is lifted, and that Gaza is rebuilt so that Gaza can be brought back to life again. As the indigenous population’s struggle in Gaza can only be alleviated by the reconstruction of Gaza.

Second: Justice, Not Continued Human Rights Violations:

The issue of Palestine is not a temporary humanitarian crisis to be solved by temporarily relocating Palestinians. It is a political issue that requires ending the Zionist occupation of Palestine and fully recognizing the rights of Palestinians to their homeland, nation, and statehood.

Third: The International Community's Commitment to Their Responsibilities:

We call on the international community to stand firmly against any attempts to legalize or accept forced displacement, to address the lack of respect demonstrated by developed countries for the international conventions they ratified, and to uphold the decisions and rulings of the International Court of Justice. We also call on the international community to support international institutions that work to protect Palestinian rights, not to obstruct or weaken them, as some hegemonic powers seek to do by defunding UNRWA or withdrawing from UN bodies.

Fourth: Unity in the Rejection of Displacement:

We also call on all countries that have rejected the displacement of Palestinians, particularly Arab countries, to support any international, humanitarian bodies that the US withdrew from or stopped funding. This includes investing into these bodies financially while also promoting other countries that rejected Palestinian displacement to contribute to these bodies’ funding. This supports these bodies’ active role in providing some protection to Palestinian expatriates throughout the diaspora while ensuring that the Palestinian diaspora is strengthened. This also enables these bodies to continue providing services to anyone affected by the siege in occupied territories, aiding anyone confronted with the occupation’s military action, as well as providing judicial protection for Palestinians against war crimes.

We also call on the countries who rejected the displacement of Palestinians to continue the flow of aid to, and the reconstruction of, Gaza without stagnation due to any of the Zionist occupation’s complications and obstacles towards the entire relief process.

We also call on all countries who rejected Palestinian displacement to join the Hague Group to end the state of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, support Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and coordinate efforts to address the state of Israel's violations of international law.

Signatory Organizations: 

1. منصة اللاجئين في مصر. (Refugee Platform in Egypt)

2. مركز النديم. (El Nadim Cente)

3. المنبر المصري لحقوق الإنسان .Egyptian Human Rights Forum ( EHRF )

4. مؤسسة قضايا المرأة المصرية.(Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA)

5. المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية 

6. مؤسسة حرية الفكر والتعبير.(Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression)

7. هيومينا لحقوق الإنسان والمشاركة المدنية.(HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement)

8.  ريدوورد لحقوق الإنسان وحرية التعبير.(REDWORD for Human Rights & Freedom of Expression)

9. Association for Justice, Equality and Peace

10. NRCE-GIE

11. Humaan Rights Concern - Eritrea (HRCE)

12. The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA) - التحالف الإقليمي للمدافعات عن حقوق الإنسان في جنوب غرب آسيا وشمال أفريقيا (WHRDMENA)

13. Law and Democracy Support Foundation - LDSF

14. DAWN

15. Reclaim The Sea

16. Ġustizzja għall-Palestina

17. ReCommon

18. Association for Justice, Equality and Peace

19. Network Of Eritrean Women

20. MENA Rights Group

21. ASGI - Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration