Palestinians in the UK have denounced Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, calling it "nightmarish" and likening it to ethnic cleansing. Trump’s claim that the U.S. would “take over” Gaza and transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” has sparked widespread outrage, including among the Palestinian diaspora.
Karim Ali, 25, a London-based co-founder of the para-cycling team Gaza Sunbirds, voiced strong opposition. His team, consisting of 20 amputee athletes—many injured by Israeli snipers or bombings—made history last year as the first Palestinian cycling team to compete internationally.
Ali criticized Trump’s plan to forcibly displace Palestinians, calling it part of the former president’s “nightmarish” foreign policy. He also expressed deep concerns about the prospect of another four years under Trump’s leadership.
“These absurd statements about Gaza—where do you plan to relocate two million people?” Ali told The i Paper. “He wants to turn Gaza into an American real estate project. It’s shocking that in 2025, someone can even suggest ethnic cleansing on such a scale, as if it’s something simple.”
Mr Ali grew up in the UAE and his father is from the Occupied West Bank. He described the bombing of Gaza over the last 15 months as equivalent to the power of seven nuclear bombs.
“It’s cost them billions of dollars, and they haven’t been able to get rid of everyone on the ground. So what’s the thinking here? How are you going to relocate these two million people?” he said.
Last year, the Sunbirds’ founder and captain Alaa al-Dali was able to take part in the Para-Cycling World Championships in Zurich after he was evacuated from Gaza.
The team missed out on the chance to compete last year at the Paralympic Games in Paris, but hope to take part at Los Angeles 2028.
However the destruction of roads due to Israel’s bombing of Gaza has made training impossible, while thousands more amputees will need rehabilitation as a result of the war.
Politicians condemn Trump’s plan as ethnic cleansing
The President’s plan has been condemned by some politicians as ethnic cleansing, given it would be a breach of international law.
John Swinney called it a “completely unacceptable” suggestion.
With Trump also saying he does not “think people should be going back” to Gaza, the Scottish First Minister said the remarks “essentially amount to ethnic cleansing”.
He added: “I can’t any way, shape or form agree with what President Trump said last night.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: “Donald Trump’s proposals are horrific and would amount to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
“We should never cosy up to or support a man like Donald Trump, who has shown a total contempt for human rights and the lives of Palestinians.”
While Sir Keir Starmer has not directly criticised Trump’s plan, the Prime Minister said: “The most important issue on the ceasefire is obviously it’s sustained, we see it through the phases, and that means that the remaining hostages come out, and the aid that’s desperately needed gets into Gaza at speed.”
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting and former shadow mental health minister, said in a letter to the Foreign Secretary: “I would like to express my outrage and ask that you take urgent steps to prevent this, including voicing the government’s disapproval in no uncertain terms.
“This is not a humanitarian gesture of compassion – it is the forced removal of a population and a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.”
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said: “President Trump’s remarks calling for the forcible transfer of Palestinians from the occupied Gaza Strip must be unequivocally and widely condemned.
“His language is inflammatory, outrageous and shameful, and his proposal amounts to a flagrant violation of international law. “
There are also fears that with Trump in charge, the athletes may not be allowed to enter the US in Olympics year, said Mr Ali who speaks every day to the team in Gaza.
“It’s been a terribly heartbreaking 15 months to bear witness to,” he said. “The most important thing for everyone to remember is [Trump] is not the king of the world.
“He’s just some clown that runs one country in this beautiful, massive, diverse planet.”
Ghassan Ghaben, 36, is from a part of Gaza City that has been “completely destroyed”, with more than 60 relatives killed during the most recent 15-month conflict.
A co-ordinator of the Gaza Families Reunited campaign to allow Gazans visas to come to the UK, he has been in Britain for about nine years, his parents and siblings fleeing to Egypt last April after Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
“This shows a complete ignorance of Donald Trump’s understanding of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people,” he said.
“Those plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, they will not be achieved. It’s terrible to see another US president supporting those violations of human rights.”
Trump’s “terrible” comments made it sound like Gaza was part of a business deal the former tycoon was preparing, he added.
The US President, who envisaged “the world’s people” living in a future Gaza, was going against every international principle, he said, adding that the war-shattered territory needed to be rebuilt now.
“I don’t see those leaders wanting a solution, or any kind of solution, they just try to kill and deny the Palestinian rights to exist,” he said.
“The Palestinian rights for self determination, the Palestinian rights to be free and live in their country with dignity – this is what the Palestinians want, and all of this has been denied for the last 75 years.
“We are determined to rebuild Gaza and go back to our homes and to our land.”
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West & Abingdon whose family, including her Palestinian mother, escaped Gaza last year said Trump had “clearly” not spoken to any Palestinians about his plan.
She urged the UK and the international community to “resist” the US President, and called for Palestine to be recognised “before it’s too late”.
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