‘No to ethnic cleansing’: over 350 rabbis sign US ad assailing Trump’s Gaza plan

Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

More than 350 rabbis, alongside additional signatories including Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in the New York Times in which they condemn Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.

“It is utterly horrifying to see the degree to which people who enjoy great legitimacy and respect in our community are willing to support something that would be considered one of the greatest crimes of the 21st century.”

Peter Beinart
Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents

The ad, which was signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”

The ad follows Trump’s proposal to “take over Gaza” and leave 2 million Palestinians who have survived Israel’s deadly onslaught against the narrow strip with “no alternative” but to leave their homes.

Trump has called on Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to take in Palestinians – a proposal that has been met with widespread criticism from Arab countries and other allies while being condemned as an ethnic-cleansing plan.

Cody Edgerly, director of the In Our Name Campaign and one of the organizers of the ad, said it came at “a critical time as political redlines that were once thought immovable are rapidly shifting as the Trump-Netanyahu alliance takes hold again”.

He said it had been “heartening to witness such a rapid outpouring of support from across the denominational and political spectrum”, adding: “Our message to Palestinians is that you are not alone, our attention has not wavered, and we are committed to fighting with every breath we have to stop ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”

Trump’s proposal – which has evoked the painful legacy of the 1948 Nakba, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes by Zionist paramilitaries – was described as an “insidious plan” by rabbi Toba Spitzer.

In a news release accompanying the ad, Spitzer, senior rabbi of congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Newton, Massachusetts, said: “It is vitally important that we in the American Jewish community add our voices to all those refusing to entertain this insidious plan. Hitler’s dream of making Germany ‘Judenrein,’ ‘cleansed of Jews,’ led to the slaughter of our people.”

“We know as well as anyone the violence that these kinds of fantasies can lead to. It is time to make the ceasefire permanent, bring all of the hostages home, and join in efforts to rebuild Gaza for the sake of and with the people who live there,” Spitzer added.

Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, who also signed the ad, said: “It is utterly horrifying to see the degree to which people who enjoy great legitimacy and respect in our community are willing to support something that would be considered one of the greatest crimes of the 21st century.”

Rabbi Yosef Berman of the New Synagogue Project in Washington DC said Trump “seems to believe he is God with authority to rule, own, and dominate our country and the world”.

“Jewish teaching is clear: Trump is not God and cannot take away Palestinians’ inherent dignity or steal their land for a real estate deal. Trump’s desire to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza is morally abhorrent. Jewish leaders reject Trump’s attempts to wring profit from displacement and suffering and must act to stop this heinous crime,” Berman added.

Since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October in 2023, killing approximately 1,200 Israelis while taking 251 people hostage, Israel launched a deadly war on Gaza. Over the last 16 months, Israeli forces have killed at least 48,200 Palestinians while forcibly displacing 2 million survivors across the narrow strip amid shortages in food, medical supplies and fuel due to Israeli aid restrictions.

In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier at the weekend, Trump said he would “own” Gaza and said it would be a “real estate development for the future”. Asked whether Palestinians would have the right to return, Trump said: “No, they wouldn’t.”

“In the meantime, I would own this,” Trump – a former real estate developer – added, saying: “Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”