Nestled alongside the Mediterranean Sea, with sandy beaches, vibrant gardens, and stunning fields, the Gaza Strip boasts a beautiful terrain. What grows and is birthed from the land it is inexplicably important and connected to the people who live on it. The land of Palestine has a historic, spiritual connection for many ethnic and religious groups, a reality which has unfortunately birthed severe conflict. Occupied Palestine (both the West Bank and Gaza) is mostly constituted of Palestinian people who are overwhelmingly Muslim, most of which whose families were ethnically cleansed and displaced during the Nakba.
Today, the people of Gaza are facing yet another expulsion from the land which they have toiled upon, thrived off of, and are ancestrally connected to through. I have written before about the power of dehumanization, and how it has been used as a pervasive and influential tool to rationalize current attempts of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. To do so allows for the dismissal of the people of Palestine’s historically deep and spiritually sound connection to the land that they call home. It has enabled the destruction of homes, ecocide (found in the intentional destruction of agriculture during wartime) and allows for continued attempts of forcible displacement.
Some have theorized that the leveling of Gaza via airstrikes, and the subsequential displacement of nearly 2 million Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war was a calculated, intentional effort aimed at creating room for new developments. This isn’t an implausible idea: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to agree with President Trump’s proposed plan to take “long-term ownership position” of Gaza.
Trump’s apparent desire to control Gaza—which is a textbook example of imperialism—and develop it into “the Riviera of the Middle East” requires Palestinians to be forced out of their already occupied land. In Trump and Netanyahu’s possible total takeover of Gaza, those who live there would not be permitted to return. Ever. It should surprise no one that our billionaire president sees Gaza as another piece of real estate, which would he believes thrive under Western development and most likely become home to Israeli settlers.
I believe that this confusing and concerning political rhetoric is deserving of a more holistic, grounded critique. To own anything is to reserve the right to change it as you see fit, sell it, and even destroy it. In the context of controlling land, this power is perhaps the most destructive it can be—because the wellbeing of anything and everyone who lives upon it can be thrown into upheaval. Thus, claiming ownership over land via an illegal military occupation, subjugating its people though an apartheid system, and bombing it into unrecognition is strong proof that to own land can never fully be an ethical position.
Human connections to land, generally, is a complicated phenomenon—to feel an affinity; love for; a spiritual or religious attachment to; or a gratitude for means something different for everyone. Therefore, a select individual or group of people is ability to make such massive decisions that affect an area of land, and its inhabitants negatively is extremely problematic. The welfare and opinions of Palestinians are being completely ignored, and there is no effort at the political level to even recognize them. Considering the past and present, it is unlikely that this will be any different in a future that is being increasingly influenced by the desires of fascist leaders.
Every step you take, each bite of food that you enjoy, and any moment you spend with those you love is tied to the earth on which we reside. Just in the way that land sustains and enriches our lives, we have a similar duty to protect it—if not for us, then for those of us have been silenced, and for those who are yet to be born.
To do so, we need to intentionally develop a more nuanced, informed understanding of the ethics of both land ownership and occupation. Where is the merit, and is it right for the Israel and US to be able to decide who should “own” occupied Palestine? I cannot seem to find either within the wreckage of destroyed homes, farms, and families.
