Manifest Destiny and Zionism, a legacy of ethnic cleansing

Screenshot from a video showing Israeli soldiers saluting the Israeli flag while singing the Israeli national anthem on a beach in Gaza in November 2023

Ethnic cleansing is as American as apple pie and justified through the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, which emerged in the 19th century and promoted the belief that Americans were divinely ordained to expand westward. This expansion led to the forced displacement, extermination, and cultural erasure of countless Native American tribes. An estimated 2 to 18 million Native Americans lived in North America before European contact. By 1890, the U.S. Census officially recorded 248,253 Native Americans.

The displacement of the Native Americans was systematic and brutal. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, enforced by President Andrew Jackson, led to the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States to Oklahoma. This uprooted the Indigenous peoples, leading to the deaths of thousands due to harsh conditions, starvation, disease, and exposure to make for American settlers. The government facilitated this through policies that legitimized land seizures, forced relocations, and even massacres, all in the name of progress and Manifest Destiny.

President Donald Trump echoed this 19th-century expansionist rhetoric, first at his inauguration when he declared a “Manifest Destiny to Mars” and the seizure of Greenland and Canada, and then later when he proposed taking Gaza and turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” His statement underscored the persistent mentality that expansion and domination remain central to his administration. Trump’s worldview, which revives 19th-century imperialism and Manifest Destiny, is similar in many ways to Zionism.

Zionism is Manifest Destiny

The Zionists, similar to the United States in the 19th-century, used their own Manifest Destiny to dispossess and claim Palestinian land. During the Palestine Mandate, Zionists, with the help of Great Britain, migrated to Palestine from Europe to take Palestine and make it “as Jewish as England is English.” The Zionist movement, although many were secularists or atheists, sought to establish a Jewish homeland because this was the land that God had promised the Jews. The Zionists claimed God’s hand or Manifest Destiny led them to the Holy Land. This ultimately justified the mass displacement of the Indigenous Palestinian population.

In 1948, during the Nakba (or “catastrophe”), approximately 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes as part of an organized plan known as Plan D. Entire villages were depopulated, and the new Israeli state systematically erased traces of Palestinian presence. Yet, this was only the beginning. In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel attempted another wave of ethnic cleansing. While some Palestinians were expelled to Jordan, others remained in what became the occupied territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Similar to the United States, the state of Israel was established over the bones and blood of the Palestinian population.

Unlike the outright annexation seen in Manifest Destiny, Israel took a different approach post-1967—managing, rather than fully integrating, the Palestinian population. This created a system of military occupation that has lasted for decades, leaving millions of Palestinians in a state of stateless purgatory with no political or economic hope. As Israeli settlements expanded into Palestinian lands, tensions grew, culminating in heightened nationalism and resistance throughout the late 20th century.

Consequences of a 19th-century mindset

Today, Israel continues its Zionist efforts to reshape the demographic landscape of the region. The recent escalation in Gaza has drawn international attention, with Israeli officials—backed by the United States—making statements that suggest an ethnic cleansing of Gaza. As history has shown, the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza could easily set the stage for a similar fate in the West Bank.

Trump himself exemplified this 19th-century mindset when asked about U.S. support for Israeli actions in Gaza; When asked about buying Gaza at a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan on February 11, 2025, Trump stated, “That we are not going to buy anything. We are going to have it, and we’re going to keep it.” This echoes an era when might make right, a period of imperialistic conquest now being revived in modern geopolitics. Such rhetoric and policies threaten to normalize ethnic cleansing once again, providing a dangerous precedent for other nations to follow.

If Israel succeeds in forcibly displacing Gaza’s population, the repercussions will extend far beyond the Middle East. Gaza’s example could embolden others to pursue similar policies. India, Myanmar, and China, all of which have faced accusations of ethnic cleansing, may feel further justified in continuing their actions under the guise of national security or territorial integrity.

This return to 19th-century world order—where Manifest Destiny supplants international law—threatens global stability. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians will trigger the collapse of Egypt and Jordan, leading to more war and more international instability. In such a scenario, the Palestinians will attack Israel from the new Palestinian territories in Egypt and Jordan and Israel, claiming self-defense will justify attacking those countries to seize more territory under the banner of security, extending Israel’s borders from the Nile to the Euphrates because God promised the land to Israel. This has long been a part of the Greater Israel ideology and part of Israel’s Manifest Destiny.

Palestine and the lessons of history

History has repeatedly shown that ethnic cleansing does not bring lasting peace; it sows the seeds of hate and future conflict. The forced displacement of Indigenous peoples, whether in North America or Palestine, has led to generational resistance. The Palestinians, like the Native Americans before them, will not abandon their claims to their homeland. As the world watches the situation in Gaza unfold, it must ask itself whether it is willing to allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated in the 21st century. The United States and Israel may believe that Manifest Destiny gives them a right to other people’s land, but history teaches that oppression breeds resistance and that native populations do not simply disappear. They fight back by whatever means, leading to further instability and conflict in the years to come.