"Language that presents Trump's intentions of ethnically cleansing Palestinians as mere “redevelopment” dangerously normalizes violations of international humanitarian law. CityNews Tonight Toronto has an obligation to ensure its reporting does not serve to normalize war crimes and crimes against humanity. At a minimum, the reporting should have explicitly stated Trump’s plan amounts to ethnic cleansing, which is in blatant violation of international law."
March 5, 2025
To the CityNews Tonight Toronto newsroom,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding your broadcast that aired at 5:48 PM on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.
At 5:49:18, your report stated: “US President Donald Trump’s plan to redevelop the Gaza Strip into a beach destination.” At 5:49:53, you referred to an Arab leader’s alternative to Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan, in which Trump seeks to “permanently remove the roughly 2 million Palestinians from the enclave and turn the area into a tourist destination.”
This framing is misleading and dangerously euphemistic. Trump is not proposing the “redevelopment” of the occupied Gaza Strip but the forced displacement of the Palestinian population—a practice that constitutes ethnic cleansing and is explicitly condemned under international law. Specifically, Article 7(1)(d) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which classifies deportation or forcible transfer of a population as a crime against humanity. In this sense, Trump’s proposal to permanently ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the occupied Gaza Strip is a serious international criminal offense:
Although Israel has not ratified the Rome Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) because Palestine acceded to the Rome Statute in 2015, making it a state party to the ICC. As a result, Israeli officials can still be prosecuted for war crimes under Article 7(1)(d) of the Rome Statute which prohibits the forcible transfer of a population.
Furthermore, Trump’s proposal, if implemented, would constitute another war crime, as he is calling for the forced expulsion of Palestinians to make way for Israeli settlements or foreign interests on Palestinian territories, again in direct violation of international law. Specifically, article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), which explicitly prohibits an occupying power (Israel) from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory (West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza even after the 2005 withdrawal):
Language that presents Trump's intentions of ethnically cleansing Palestinians as mere “redevelopment” dangerously normalizes violations of international humanitarian law. CityNews Tonight Toronto has an obligation to ensure its reporting does not serve to normalize war crimes and crimes against humanity. At a minimum, the reporting should have explicitly stated Trump’s plan amounts to ethnic cleansing, which is in blatant violation of international law.
Warm regards,
Lynn Naji
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East