OPINION:
President Trump’s idea of relocating Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt is a bad idea (“Trump says Egypt, Jordan should take more Palestinian refugees,” Web, Jan. 26). Jordan has been America’s friend for decades and already has three million Palestinians, or about half the population. To add another three million from the West Bank and another two million from the Gaza strip would cause internal problems and a civil war in Jordan.
Egypt has rejected allowing an influx from Gaza, citing concerns about the displacement of Palestinians and regional security issues. We cannot allow instability in either country, as Egypt has also been a friend of the United States.
Choose more wisely. Perhaps these people could be resettled in the Spanish Sahara, which is a no-man’s land along the Atlantic Coast between Morocco on the northern side and Mauritania on the south.
The population of the Spanish Sahara, now called the Western Sahara, is estimated to be around 632,200 in an area the size of Colorado, about 97,344 square miles. There’s plenty of room for the Palestinians, and the population of Western Sahara speak Hassaniya Arabic, a dialect of Arabic, so assimilation into society should not be too difficult.
JOHN LEMANDRI
Williamsburg, Virginia
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