- Emmanuel Macron called for “respect” when discussing Donald Trump’s plan to remake Gaza and move Palestinians away. “You cannot say to 2 million people, ‘okay, now guess what? You will move,’” he told CNN.
French President Emmanuel Macron slammed a plan to control Gaza proposed by his American counterpart in a recent interview with CNN. “You cannot say to 2 million people, ‘okay, now guess what? You will move,’” he told the outlet.
“The right answer is not a real estate operation, this is a political operation,” Macron said.
Since President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell last week during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he wanted to take over Gaza and remake it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” he hasn’t backed off.
Trump and Jordanian King Abdullah II spoke to the press on Tuesday after the president suggested Jordan and Egypt take in Palestinians while he rebuilds the Gaza Strip; at one point he threatened to cut off aid if they didn’t cooperate, but has pulled back from that previous statement. Abdullah announced he would open the doors for 2,000 sick children in Gaza because that was something he could do right away. More discussions on the matter with leaders of Arab countries are anticipated. But it is clear Trump has not changed his mind despite criticism he has received on the ethics and legality of it all, plus pushback from the two countries on housing millions of refugees.
“Nobody wants to stay there,” Trump said during the press conference, referring to Gaza. “They’re living in hell.” He later said, “I’ve had a great career in real estate,” and claimed he would not personally develop properties in Gaza. Trump sees it as an asset for the Middle East, economically and when it comes to peace.
Still, rebuilding Gaza “doesn’t mean automatically that you should lack respect to people or countries,” Macron said. His remarks came before the artificial intelligence summit held in Paris this week, where Vice President JD Vance made his first foreign speech.
“I don’t believe, once again, that such a massive operation targeting sometimes civilian people is the right answer,” Macron said, calling out his disagreement with Netanyahu and how the Israeli government has handled the war in Gaza after the Hamas-orchestrated attack on Israel more than a year ago.
Macron isn’t the only foreign official to blast Trump’s idea. British prime minister Keir Starmer said: “They must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution,” referring to Palestinians. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said the Gaza Strip belongs to Palestinians and removing them would go against international law, per Reuters.