It is heartening to note that the Arab leaders have finally taken a firm step towards the plight of Palestinians by endorsing a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority.
In other words, they have presented an alternative to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the Gaza Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
In fact, Trump has also proposed another Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic, and it refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians by Israel in 1948) as his proposal advocates displacement of Palestinians.
No doubt, for Palestinians, Trump’s proposal invokes painful memories of dispossession and exile. Asking Gaza’s Palestinian inhabitants to relocate themselves to Jordan and Iran is a proposal of mind boggling complexities.
In my view, the US President seems to have lost his marbles by making such an outrageous or preposterous proposal. The Arab leaders must also be praised for announcing the setting up of a trust fund to pay for the Strip’s reconstruction and urging the world community to back their plan.
But they are required to show no complacency towards their approach to the ongoing sufferings of the Palestinian people. Last but not least, they must not lose sight of the fact that Donald Trump has come back to the White House.
Sana Rahman
Islamabad
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025