Upon assuming the U.S. presidency in January 2025, Donald Trump unveiled his vision for the Gaza Strip, according to which all its residents will leave and the U.S. will assume control over the enclave and responsibility for its reconstruction. Palestinians and the entire Arab world hastened to reject the plan and to vehemently criticize it. And yet, the Saudi website Elaph chose to present a different response, from a Palestinian columnist who supports the Trump plan and welcomes it. Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab, a columnist who contributes to the website, claimed that the plan will deliver the Palestinian from the refugee status that has been forced upon them by Palestinian and Arab elements that he says trade in the Palestinian issue and sentence the Palestinian population to a life of poverty and disease in the refugee camps, while they enjoy the good life in Europe.
In an article titled, "Thank you Trump, I'm a Palestinian and I support You," which Abd Al-Wahhab stated is based on an article that he published in 2018, in which he welcomed the decision by President Trump, during his first term, to cease funding to UNRWA, he urged Palestinians to internalize the lessons of the past and stop allowing others to use them to serve their own objectives, and to take action to create a better future for themselves and their children. He wrote that many people in the Gaza Strip would like to leave it after it was demolished during the recent war, which erupted in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The following is a translation of his article:
"Today I once again support him [President Trump] and his ideas for a solution to the problem of the Gaza Strip, following the war that broke out after the Hamas attack on the communities adjacent to Gaza on October 7, and after the devastation caused to the Gaza Strip…"
"We Palestinians have known killing and massacres, displacement and exile, wars and fleeing. We have known every form of suffering for over a hundred years. The disasters we have suffered were caused by our own brothers, our own people, who thought that riding the waves of nationality, nationalism, organizations and religion was the way to attain the longed-for homeland. However, those who preceded us in attaining this homeland [i.e., the Jews] were much more honest than we were in their affiliation with it, for they learned from history not to lie to themselves. They learned the lesson and established their state after thousands of years of exile.
"I am the displaced Palestinian refugee in the refugee camps of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and even Israel, wondering: what have I gained with my refugee certificate, other than [the opportunity for] my children, and my family to wait for a little oil and flour? They want me to cling to this status [of a refugee]. More precisely... the leaders of organizations like Fatah, the Popular [and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine], Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are the ones who want us to remain trapped in this identity. Many countries help them with this. Those who benefit from and trade in the Palestinian cause will not stop as long as we agree to be their tools and as long as we do not shed the garments they have dressed us in, especially the garments of the refugee.
"They want us to be refugees and beggars, while they, the masters, continue to enjoy the pleasures of life in Vienna and their children live in Dubai, Amman, and Paris, whereas our children live in the refugee camps.
"We are not refugees! We are human beings and our children are human beings. We want to live and want our children to live, build their future and make their way, far from the diseases of the past. We want to emerge from the alleys and tin shacks. We want to build a civilized society, rather than continue to drown in the mental and physical diseases of the refugee camps.
"If the first step [in this direction] is stopping the aid to UNRWA, then stop it. I, a Palestinian, thank Trump and hope he completes his plan to demolish all the refugee camps everywhere. My homeland, as a Palestinian, is wherever I can live. My homeland is where my children can enjoy a dignified life and a safe future, not where there is death, displacement and killing and where [we] wallow in the penury and the muddy alleyways of the refugee camps.
"Mr. Trump, I encourage you and demand that you continue. I am a Palestinian and I support you!
"If the solution necessitates moving the Gazans to other countries, as many of them long to do following the war, there is nothing wrong with that. Perhaps they will find countries that will allow them to live in dignity and stop being pawns sacrificed in political games that have nothing to do with life, but only with death.
"Mr. Trump, save us from the talons of death and from life as refugees. We support you."[1]
[1] Elaph.com, February 6, 2025.
