Videos - Massive Egyptian protest at Rafah on border with Gaza to reject any displacement of Palestinians - Foreign Affairs
Thousands of Egyptians, led by public figures and political delegations, are protesting in the Egyptian Rafah on the border with the Gaza Strip to reject all proposals to displace the Palestinian people from their land and any attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
The unprecedented massive demonstration in the Egyptian Rafah on Egypt's border with Gaza comes as a response to recent proposals by US President Donald Trump to relocate the residents of the war-devastated strip to Egypt and Jordan, among other Arab and Muslim countries.
Thousands, waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags, expressed unconditional support for President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's rejection of the US administration's proposals for the relocation of the Palestinian people.
Protesters held placards and chanted: 'No to Displacing Palestinian People' and 'No to Liquidating the Palestinian Cause".
To the backdrop of Egyptian and Palestinian patriotic songs supporting the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, protesters representing various shades of the political spectrum in the country chanted in support of "The Right of Return of the Palestinian People" and "Gaza Must be Reconstructed after the Ceasefire".
The protests come amid the historic return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza in the second week of a ceasefire/prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas , brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, to end 15 months of Tel Aviv's genocidal war on 2.4 million Palestinians in the strip.
Thousands of Egyptians are rallied at the Rafah Crossing to protest against Trump's plans to displace the Palestinian people. pic.twitter.com/tfng60UWmP — PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) January 31, 2025
Simultaneously, hundreds of demonstrators took to the entrance of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt's North Sinai and Gaza to demand the opening of the crossing to allow for the unfettered entry of humanitarian aid to the strip as stipulated under the ceasefire deal.
On Wednesday, Israel threatened not to open the Rafah border crossing until Hamas starts to "smoothly" release Israeli captives.
Rejecting an Injustice!
On Wednesday, President El-Sisi asserted that Egypt "cannot participate in the injustice of displacing the Palestinian people."
President El-Sisi asserted that such displacement "can never be tolerated or allowed" due to its potential threat to Egypt's national security in his first public comment on Trump's recent proposals to relocate the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan.
During a press conference with Kenyan President William Ruto, the Egyptian president emphasized that Egypt is committed to working with US President Trump to reach the desired peace in the Middle East based on the two-state solution.
However, the Egyptian president reiterated that the constants of the historical Egyptian position on the Palestinian cause "can never be compromised in any way."
"There are historical rights that cannot be ignored," said El-Sisi, adding, "Egyptian, Arab, and international public opinion recognized a historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people for the past 70 years."
He highlighted how the world has witnessed the return of the Palestinian people to the Gaza Strip after enduring destruction for more than 15 months.
Egypt has consistently rejected all attempts to make life in Gaza untenable to force the Palestinians to leave, noted El-Sisi.
Egyptians protest at the Rafah border crossing to say no to Trump's plans to displace the Palestinian people from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan. pic.twitter.com/WQl3YN4PL3 — PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) January 31, 2025
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Trump: Incendiary proposal
In a controversial statement on Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced that he would propose relocating Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Jordan and Egypt.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he had told Jordan's King Abdullah II: "I'd love you to take on more because I'm looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it's a mess, it's a real mess." Trump added that he planned to present the same proposal to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on Monday that Cairo categorically rejects any displacement of Palestinians from their land, be it "short term" or "long term." Amman also declared its official rejection of the displacement of Palestinians to Jordan.
In Jordan, the Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Amman rejects any attempt to displace the Palestinian people from their homeland to his country, saying, 'Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians.'
Various Palestinian factions and the Arab League condemned Trump's suggestions.
Later Monday, Hamas issued a statement praising the Egyptian and Jordanian positions, which rejected Trump's proposals.
France and others in the international community opposed the US president's proposals.
On Tuesday, the Axios News website reported that US President Trump allegedly told reporters on his plane Monday evening that he spoke with El-Sisi about transferring Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt.
A high-ranking official denied any recent phone conversation between El-Sisi and Trump, Al-Qahera News reported. Egypt responds!
Various Egyptian MPs and public figures took to the air on Friday to denounce Trump's proposals, stressing that Egypt has supported the Palestinian cause for over seven decades and insists that the establishment of an independent State of Palestine as part of a two-state solution is the only just solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict that ensures regional stability.
Speaker after speaker rejected implicit threats to President El-Sisi and Egypt published in the Jerusalem Post or Israeli media.
Speaking to Extra News, MP Soliman Wahdan said Egypt would never back down from its constants of supporting the Palestinian cause regardless of any threats.
"If they want peace, we also want peace. But they should know: Egypt has 107 million soldiers, not just citizens," said Wahdan.
"Trump must understand the state of mind of the Egyptian and Arab people," he added.
Journalist Mahmoud Mosalem told Extra News that the Israeli media threats to President El-Sisi were "foolishnesses" that would not change Egypt's principled support of the Palestinian's just cause.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu must be made to understand that a two-state solution is the only solution because the Palestinian people are going nowhere, added Mosalem. Parliament is on board!
In tandem, House Deputy Speaker Mohamed Abou El-Enein told Extra News that the Egyptian Parliament will reach out to various Arab and global parliaments to mobilize support for the Palestinian cause.
On Wednesday, during a speech before the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Parliamentary Assembly meeting on migration to the Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic held in Spain, Abou El-Enein explained that the Palestinian people would not give up their land or leave it.
He called on the international community to work to end the Israeli occupation and reach a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.
Furthermore, Abou El-Enein noted that the root cause of the conflict in the Middle East is the Israeli occupation.
'If we want to achieve security and peace, we must work to end the Israeli occupation and not for the Palestinian people to leave their land so that the occupation remains in it,' he went on saying.
He added that such a proposal violates international law, values, principles, and human rights and would expand the conflict in the region.
Moreover, the Deputy Speaker pointed out that repeated attempts to displace the Palestinians have failed in the past. Peace, he affirmed, can only be achieved by demonstrating a serious political will to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 1967 that coexists peacefully with the state of Israel.
Abou El-Enein affirmed that the displacement of Palestinians is a red line, stressing that Cairo would not accept attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause under any circumstances.
Speaking from Beirut, Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty reaffirmed that Egypt rejects any attempts aimed at displacing the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and liquidating the Palestinian cause. FM reaffirms!
'Our stance is clear,' said FM Abdelatty during a press conference in Beirut after meeting with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Designate Nawaf Salam, Outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib.
In the past 72 hours, Egyptian political parties and professional syndicates called for public protests at the Rafah crossing to show solidarity with the Palestinian people and to reject any proposals to displace them from their land forcibly.
On Tuesday, 10 Egyptian professional syndicates announced plans to send delegations to Rafah to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, condemning US President Trump's remarks on the forcible displacement of Palestinians and liquidating their cause.
The Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate issued a statement condemning US President Donald Trump's "unacceptable proposals for forcibly displacing Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan as an attempt to undermine the Palestinian cause.
Trump's remarks have sparked widespread condemnation in Egypt and the Arab and Muslim World.
In Egypt, Egyptian Parliament speaker Hanafy El-Gebaly said the Palestinian cause is not a "demographic issue or a geographical dispute" but "the struggle of a people asserting their historical and legitimate rights."
Al-Azhar, the world's leading Sunni Muslim institution, said it firmly rejects all plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land, describing these attempts as desperate and unjust efforts to enable Israel to seize the Palestinian territories and resources and violate rights.
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