CNN's Jim Sciutto, sitting in for Kasie Hunt on CNN This Morning, teed up a Palestinian to repeatedly accuse Trump of "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza, and Israel of "genocide."
Words that never passed the ex-Obama diplomat's lips: October 7th, Hamas, or hostages. Instead, Sciutto created a free-fire zone for the Palestinian to attack Trump and Israel.
Much of what you need to know about the Palestinian in question, Yawa Hawari, co-director of the Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, can be gleaned from these words in a recent article she wrote [emphasis added]:
"Over the last year, Palestine has been irrevocably changed in ways that, for many of us, were once inconceivable. Since the beginning of the genocide, the Israeli regime has killed over 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza."
Sciutto could only throw softballs. He began: "I want you, if you can, to describe reaction in the region to sitting U.S. president saying not only will the U.S. take ownership of Gaza, but that the Palestinian people have no right to return, to ever return, to the land that is their home."
So in one fell swoop, Hawari accuses Israel of "genocide," while omitting what was the "beginning" in question: October 7th. She said "ethnic cleansing" three times, to get all the buzzwords in.
As for which group is, in fact, proposing genocide and ethnic cleansing, have a look at this photo, which adorns an Al-Shabaka article on its vision for the Palestinian future. Nakba is the Arabic word for catastrophe, employed by Israel's enemies to describe the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. "Abolish Zionism" is a synonym for the destruction of Israel.
Note: Last year, our Tim Graham noted Sciutto quoting General John Kelly to the effect that a second Trump term would be a "catastrophe." Given his affinities, perhaps Sciutto would want to call Trump's second term a new nakba.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
2/11/25
6:37 am ETJIM SCIUTTO: With the fate of Gaza and two million Palestinians who live there hanging in the balance, President Trump is hosting Jordan's King Abdullah at the White House this morning.
The president is threatening now to withhold funding from U.S. allies Jordan and Egypt if they do not agree to take in Palestinian refugees forced from Gaza. Both countries have already quite publicly rejected that idea.
REPORTER: Would you withhold aid to these countries if they don't agree to take in the Palestinians?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, maybe. Sure. Why not? You mean if they don't agree? If they don't agree, I would conceivably withhold aid, yeah.
SCIUTTO: Trump has made it clear he does not believe the Palestinian people should return to Gaza during the current ceasefire, and claims, and this is crucial, that they do not have a right to ever come back to their homeland.
TRUMP: Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land.
BRET BAIER: Would the Palestinians have the right to return?
TRUMP: No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing, much better -- in other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them, because if they have to return now, it'll be years before you could ever -- it's not habitable.
SCIUTTO: I want to speak now to Yara Hawari. She is the co-director of Al-Shabaka, an independent transnational Palestinian policy think tank. Yara, thanks so much for joining this morning.
YAWA HAWARI: Thank you for having me.
SCIUTTO: I want you, if you can, to describe reaction in the region to sitting U.S. president saying not only will the U.S. take ownership of Gaza, but that the Palestinian people have no right to return, to ever return, to the land that is their home.
HAWARI: Well, I think most people think the comments are absurd. It's yet again another call for ethnic cleansing . . . And I think his reasons for these comments is because, you know, he said that Gaza has been destroyed, that it's been uninhabitable. And so that's why he's sort of proposing this, this ethnic cleansing. But he never talks about why this is the case.
This wasn't a natural disaster. This was a manmade disaster. Israel carpet bombed Gaza, this tiny piece of land that is about a third of the size of Los Angeles for 15 months straight with U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons, might I add. So this is a destruction that is as direct result of US foreign policy. So I think people in the region and Palestinians find his comments quite absurd and quite detached from reality.
. . .
Firstly, I think it's really important that we get our language right. You know, this isn't a forced movement. This is ethnic cleansing. It's quite a simple concept. It's the forced removal of an entire ethnic group from the lands in which they live.
. . .
SCIUTTO: Before we go, you will often hear about this issue and others, that this is just bluster, this is just President Trump talking. But he's repeated this threat in terms of taking aid away from Jordan and Egypt, but also that he wants the U.S. to take over Gaza. From your point of view and the people you speak to there, is that a serious proposition by Trump regarding Gaza?
HAWARI: Well, I think we have to take whatever Trump says very seriously. And you're right, this wasn't just an off-the-cuff remark. He has repeated it many times since he first mentioned it.
But I think in all of this, no one has discussed Palestinian agency as if Palestinians are just these passive pieces on a chessboard. But they're not. They've survived genocide, 15 months of relentless bombardments and forced starvation, and they are determined to stay on their land. And I think people including Donald Trump, underestimate that determination.
SCIUTTO: They have agency. All right, Yara Hawari, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
