- ‘US, which was once the champion of internationalism, is now the enemy of it,’ Falk tells Anadolu on Trump's disregard for international rejection of his proposal

ISTANBUL

After over 15 months of genocidal onslaught left much of Gaza in ruins, Palestinians in the tiny strip of land now — once again — face the prospect of displacement.

Many have already lost their homes in relentless Israeli bombardment since October 2023, and with former US President Donald Trump unveiling a widely rejected proposal to take over Gaza, fears are growing of mass expulsion of the territory’s population of roughly 2 million in what could amount to ethnic cleansing, some argue.

This is a position shared by Richard Falk, a former UN special rapporteur on Palestine with decades of experience advocating for Palestinian rights.

In an interview with Anadolu, the American international law scholar said Trump’s plan serves to “compound the evil” that Palestinians have already suffered to stay on their land, even if it meant being subject to genocide.

“It's a very clear example of ethnic cleansing,” Falk points out. “It doesn't give any role of consent to the Palestinian people, and it is a kind of policy that contradicts their fundamental claim, which is, this is their land.”

At a conference in Istanbul on the “dark vision” being imposed on Palestinians, Falk criticized Trump’s plan as a “horrifying” endorsement of Israel’s actions in Gaza, where over 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in attacks from the land, sea, and air.

Not only punishing the victims of these attacks with ethnic cleansing, the plan “appears to make Gaza into a … gigantic real estate project that will enrich construction investment,” he said.

For its part, Israel is on board with the idea of expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, with the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praising Trump for his “outside-the-box” thinking that led to the plan.

But on the Israeli side, it’s “not just Netanyahu,” argues Falk, who pointed out that “at least 80% of the Israeli public favor ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.”

“This was about both land and people because it was seeking the endpoint of the Zionist project which had as its objectives of maximal territory and minimal Palestinians … That is still dominant and may be closer to completion if the US gives support to the annexationist goals of the present leadership there.”

US: Once ally, now enemy of internationalism

Trump has responded to global rejection of his plan by doubling down. After initially floating it in early February, he went a step further by saying the uprooted Palestinians would not be allowed to return to their homes, in direct contradiction to the calls of the international community, including global governance structures like the UN.

For Falk, there’s “no question, independent of the Palestinian issue, that Trump doesn’t like the UN, and he doesn’t like international law.”

In a stark assessment of the US president’s diplomatic style, he said Trump “likes power and transactional diplomacy and being free to do whatever he thinks serves the American interests.”

“It’s certainly a very significant development that the US, which was once the champion of internationalism, is now the enemy of it,” he added.

Disregard for international moral values did not begin with Trump, however, as Falk points to the “double standards” that liberal democracies exhibited on the Palestine issue, comparing it with their response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“They completely discredited themselves by double standards,” he said. “If there’s one thing that undermines law and respect for law, it is by treating equals unequally … that kind of duality, as I suggest, undermines the authority of law because it really reduces it to ‘which side are you on?’ rather than some common regulatory standards.”

Continued hope amid struggle

Pointing to past mistakes made on the quest for Palestinian self-determination, Falk said the greatest was “to allow the US to be the intermediary as if a partisan can operate in a fair manner, which was never the intention of the US and was always an insistence by Israel.”

As he called attention to the lack of strong moral leadership to exert international pressure on Israel, Falk highlighted, however, that historical precedent suggests that the current “tragic course” could change in unpredictable ways.

“The transfer of power and equity that occurred in South Africa was one that no one expected to happen until it happened,” he said. “One should not give up hope in a struggle of this kind … only a mobilization of people, people that can influence the behavior of leading governments, can bring about some kind of fundamental change that avoids the kind of path that Netanyahu and Trump seem to be walking at the moment.”

Falk, who leads the Gaza Tribunal — a London-based group of academics, jurists, rights advocates, artists, and media and civil society representatives seeking justice for Palestinians — emphasized the role of grassroots action in countering political inertia.

“It is only by people doing what governments and international institutions should be doing that we have some basis for a hopeful and positive future that finally brings a semblance of justice to the Palestinian people. And that is my commitment and the commitment of the Gaza Tribunal.”

“Both things are essential. Both the hope that change for the better is possible and action based on the belief that that can happen,” he said.