Sen. Chris Van Hollen Tells Chris Hayes Trump’s Gaza Plan Is ‘Ethnic Cleansing by Another Name’ | Video

President Trump’s shocking announcement on Tuesday that he supports forcibly removing Palestinians from Gaza, and that he wants the U.S. to effectively annex the region, is “ethnic cleansing by another name,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Tuesday night.

“He just said that it will be United States policy to forcibly displace 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip,” Van Hollen said. “That is ethnic cleansing by another name. He said the United States would then own the Gaza Strip and that we would develop the Gaza Strip and that other countries would take these Palestinians.”

During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”

Trump also insisted “the only reason Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative.” He described the Gaza Strip as a “demolition site” and added, “Virtually every building is down. They’re living under fallen concrete that’s very dangerous and very precarious.”

Instead, Gazans can “instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony instead of having to go back and do it again.”

About this, Van Hollen added, “what the President is doing here is really throwing a match on an already very volatile region. This is something that Iran and our adversaries will celebrate. The super far-right wing in Israel will celebrate.”

Watch the interview below:

Hayes agreed. “You know, the forcible expulsion of 2 million people is an atrocity,” he insisted. “That’s the kind of thing that if any other nation-state does it, we view it as an atrocity. You can’t forcibly expel people.”

“I’m not even clear. I mean, it’s obviously violation of international law. I’m not even clear that he has American legal authority to do something like this,” Hayes added.

Trump, in fact, does not have such authority, Van Hollen clarified. “Well, certainly he doesn’t have the legal authority to deploy American forces, right, to push 2 million people out of Gaza,” he explained. “That would require congressional authorization.”

“He also, of course, ran on being the President who is going to stop all wars, not get us in the middle of more conflicts. So, this is why it is such a jaw-dropping moment for the American people and the country, for the President of the United States to say, as you say, I mean, this isn’t just like a paper violation of international law.”

“It is ethnic cleansing by another name, and it will certainly embolden our adversaries,” Van Hollen insisted again.

The UN states ethnic cleansing has “not been recognized as an independent crime under international law.” A United Nations Commission of Experts defined ethnic cleansing as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.” Methods used to remove a civilian population include forcible relocation.

You can watch the interview with Sen. Van Hollen in the video above.

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