Trump wants Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinians from Gaza. Here's why the idea is rejected

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Jordan's King Abdullah II once again rejected any mass displacement of Palestinians after meeting with President Donald Trump, who has called for the Gaza Strip's roughly 2 million residents to be removed from the war-ravaged territory.

Trump has suggested they could be resettled in Jordan and Egypt, both of which are vehemently opposed to any such scenario. The Palestinians also reject Trump's plan, which they view as an attempt to forcibly displace them from part of their homeland. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have also rejected such plans.

Israel's leaders have welcomed Trump's proposal, which Human Rights Watch and others have said would amount to “ethnic cleansing,” the forcible displacement of the civilian population of a national group from a geographic area.

During his meeting with Trump, Abdullah volunteered to accept up to 2,000 children from Gaza who have cancer or otherwise require medical treatment.

But in a post on X after the meeting, he “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank," adding that it was a "unified Arab position.”

Here's a look at why Jordan and Egypt refuse to accept large numbers of Palestinian refugees.

A history of displacement

Before and during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the prewar population — fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel, an event the Palestinians commemorate as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe.

Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. The refugees and their descendants now number around 6 million, with large communities in Gaza, where they make up the majority of the population, as well as the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

In the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 300,000 more Palestinians fled, mostly into Jordan. The kingdom hosts the largest population of Palestinian refugees, with over 2 million, most of whom have been granted Jordanian citizenship.

The decades-old refugee crisis has been central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was one of the thorniest issues in peace talks that last broke down in 2009. The Palestinians claim a right of return, while Israel says they should be absorbed by surrounding Arab countries.

Many Palestinians view the latest war in Gaza, in which entire neighborhoods have been shelled to oblivion and 90% of the population have been forced from their homes, as a new Nakba. They fear that if large numbers of Palestinians leave Gaza, then they too may never return.

Steadfastly remaining on one's land is central to Palestinian culture, and was on vivid display in Gaza last month, when thousands of people returned to the most heavily destroyed part of the territory.

A red line for countries that made peace with Israel

Egypt and Jordan fiercely rejected the idea of accepting Gaza refugees early in the war, when it was floated by some Israeli officials.

Both countries have made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. They fear that the permanent displacement of Gaza's population could make that impossible.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has also warned of the security implications of transferring large numbers of Palestinians to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, bordering Gaza.

Hamas and other militant groups are deeply rooted in Palestinian society and are likely to move with the refugees, which would mean that future wars would be fought on Egyptian soil. That could unravel the historic Camp David peace treaty, a cornerstone of regional stability.

That's what happened in Lebanon in the 1970s, when Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, the leading militant group of its time, transformed the country's south into a launchpad for attacks on Israel. The refugee crisis and the PLO's actions helped push Lebanon into a 15-year civil war in 1975. Israel invaded twice and occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 until 2000.

Jordan clashed with the PLO and expelled it under similar circumstances in 1970.

Israeli ultranationalists have long suggested that Jordan be considered a Palestinian state so that Israel can keep the West Bank, which they view as the biblical heartland of the Jewish people. Jordan's monarchy has vehemently rejected that scenario.

Can Trump force Egypt and Jordan to accept refugees?

That depends on how serious Trump is about the idea and how far he is prepared to go.

U.S. tariffs — one of Trump's favorite economic tools — or outright sanctions could be devastating for Jordan and Egypt. The two countries receive billions of dollars in American aid each year, and Egypt is already mired in an economic crisis.

Trump has suggested he might withhold aid but declined to repeat the threat in his meeting with Abdullah on Tuesday, saying: “I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that.”

Allowing an influx of refugees could also be destabilizing for both countries. Egypt says it is currently hosting some 9 million migrants, including refugees from Sudan's civil war. Jordan, with a population of less than 12 million, is hosting over 700,000 refugees, mainly from Syria.

Trump's Gaza plan could also complicate efforts to broker diplomatic normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which says it won't forge ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.

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Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war