After 15 months of war that claimed over 46,000 Palestinian lives, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement on January 14. It was a welcome shift after more than 500 days of relentless carnage by the IDF, but the situation grows increasingly precarious. U.S President Donald Trump has asserted that the U.S ought to take ownership of Gaza and “clean it out” by displacing Palestinians to countries such as Jordan or Egypt. Let’s remind ourselves that the forced movement of a people from their homeland is ethnic cleansing. 

Does a ceasefire hold significant political meaning in terms of progress and justice for Palestinians, when it risks being jeopardised less than a month before its enactment? Immense suffering continues in the occupied West Bank as Israel steps up their annexation, and Trump’s dangerous rhetoric continues to aggravate the conflict. 

The fragile ceasefire holds only in Gaza; it is crucial to remember that it does not stop 

With Israel from continuing to attack Palestinians – the reality of the occupation tells a different story. The Palestinian city of Jenin in the Northern West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, and the Jenin refugee camp has historically housed Palestinians who fled or were expelled in the aftermath of the 1948 Palestine War. 

As soon as the Gaza ceasefire took hold, Israel orchestrated an invasion of Jenin, demolishing dozens of homes, killing at least 19 people and rendering it a “ghost town”. Almost all individuals in Jenin’s refugee camps have been displaced and families are being denied the right to bury their loved ones at home in fear of Israeli snipers. The fundamental conditions of occupation remain unchanged in Palestine; Jenin’s devastation proves that the temporary halt in Gaza’s bombardment merely allows Israel to redirect its military operations elsewhere. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, the war criminal facing an arrest warrant from the ICC, stood beside convicted felon President Trump as he unveiled his repugnant plan to turn what remains of Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”- a world class coastal tourist area along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. This blatant act of ethnic cleansing is simply abhorrent, yet the U.S. are unrestrained in treating Palestine as geopolitical pawn to to bolster the U.S.-Israel alliance. The land rightfully belongs to the Palestinians and their ancestors – how can they be denied the right to return after all they’ve endured? Many of the innocent lives lost in the past 500 days remain buried deep under rubble and debris. Contrary to the Western narrative, Palestine’s has a deep, rich history, its land symbolizing collective hope, deep faith and incomprehensible grief of decades of 

oppression. Yet, for Donald Trump, aiding and abetting its total obliteration was apparently not enough – he now sees only dollar signs in the ruins of what remains. 

If it there is any small comfort to be found in this dire situation, it’s that these hysterical claims come from a self-proclaimed advocate of “America First”, a habitual liar convicted on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records. 

Yet if history has taught us anything at all, we should be long past letting a divisive and dangerous rhetoric infiltrate our politics, especially those that shamelessly advocate for ethnic cleansing on the world stage. We must be vocal and unwavering in our rejection of these crimes, because for the Palestinians this ceasefire is just a temporary mirage. Next, Israel must dismantle their system of apartheid and end its unlawful occupation.