ABC 7 Chicago: Chicago-area experts question US right to make Gaza Strip 'Riviera of the Middle East'
By Stephanie Wade and Craig Wall
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Some headed to Springfield to advocate for the Palestinian people after President Donald Trump said he envisions making the Gaza Strip, "the Riviera of the Middle East."
How he plans to do that, where people living there would go and who will foot the bill remain unknown Wednesday.
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip," Trump said Tuesday during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The president's statements are drawing a strong reaction Wednesday.
Local experts say the U.S. might not have the right to do so.
The White House is standing by President Trump's proposal for a Gaza takeover and relocating millions of Palestinians.
"We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development," Trump said.
Mateo Farzaneh, chair of the History Department at Northeastern Illinois University, isn't sure that would be allowed.
"I'm not even sure the legality of it or the international law would allow for such a thing to take place. They can't go anywhere because somebody needs to accept them. There are over, well over a million people that are displaced," Farzaneh said.
President Trump suggested displaced Palestinians in Gaza be resettled outside the war-torn territory in neighboring countries.
Saudi Arabia and Jordan already said they would not take them.
"Where do we go? How do we do this? Who is going to finance this? How are these people going to survive if they go from point A to point B? What is going to greet them?" Farzaneh said.
Dr. Osamah Abdallah with the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago was en route to Springfield Wednesday morning to advocate for the Palestinian people, who, he said, have not been part of this conversation.
"This is a land we've been tied to for thousands and thousands of years, and to simply be told to pick up and leave is extremely insensitive. It's very un-American," Abdallah said.
The comments left many Jewish and Muslim groups wondering what comes next.
The idea is being roundly dismissed.
Democratic lawmakers are criticizing the president's plan, which they say completely ignores the sovereignty of those who have lived in Gaza for generations.
"We want them to stay in their land; we want them to live in peace. We want them to have basic human rights and to be recognized as human beings and to have basic dignity. And these statements completely erase our dignity, erase our existence and completely dismiss our basic human rights," Abdallah said.
The president said he isn't ruling out sending U.S. troops over to secure American ownership of the strip or support its reconstruction.
On Daley Plaza Tuesday afternoon, a group called Indivisible Chicago hosted a protest rally, calling on Illinois' two senators to oppose the proposal by President Trump that the U.S. take over Gaza.
"What do we need our senators to do? Stand up; fight back!" they chanted.
Several Muslim organizations are calling the notion ridiculous and the president out of touch with international law.
"Whether he's serious or not, this is a silly plan that will not take hold. Nobody in the region believes in this plan. Palestinians will not leave their land. They fought tooth and nail for their land," said Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Chicago).
Cantor David Berger with congregation KAM Isaiah Israel in Hyde Park was willing to speak publicly about the proposal, while many other Jewish groups declined.
"It's preposterous at the beginning, and for so many reasons. And I will say for me, as a person who takes a lot of time learning Jewish tradition, there is a principle in the Talmud that, actually it says, a land cannot be stolen," Berger said.
Gov. JB Pritzker also spoke out Wednesday.
"This one, let me just be clear, is dangerous for the Middle East. It's dangerous for Israel. It's dangerous for Palestinians, and it's dangerous for the United States," he said.