International humanitarian law prohibits removing a group of people from their home territory, raising questions about President Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza and encourage the displacement of Palestinians living in the enclave, said CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger.
“How do you persuade the Palestinians to leave their land… and what do you do if they won’t leave? Because the Geneva Conventions is pretty clear that you cannot forcibly move a population off of their homeland,” he told CNN’s John Vause.
What does the UN say? The Geneva Conventions—the international standard for humanitarian law in conflict—prohibit the forced movement of civilians. It states that civilian displacement shall not be ordered “unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand.”
Is it realistic? Trump’s proposed plan raises a host of questions about how such a land grab would proceed, what its legal authorities would be, and who would pay for the effort.
When asked whether the US has the authority to enact such a plan, Sanger said no—but pointed to other instances of US military campaigns, such as the invasion of Iraq, that went ahead anyway.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of authority there either, even the kind of UN resolution that the US had looked for,” he said.
