Is Trump Pushing to Deport Gazans to Indonesia and Albania?

After Egypt and Jordan officially rejected Donald Trump’s plan to deport Gazans to their territories, “Israel” and the U.S. began pushing the “malicious original plan,” which also includes relocation to Indonesia and Albania.

According to Israeli media, Indonesia and Albania were chosen to spare Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II from potential domestic backlash.

Long before Operation al-Aqsa Flood, Washington and Tel Aviv were working to normalize ties between “Israel” and Muslim-majority nations, with Indonesia, Malaysia, and Albania among the key targets.

The push for normalization with Saudi Arabia was also meant to send a message to major Muslim nations resisting ties with “Israel”: If the custodian of the two holy mosques could normalize relations, why couldn’t they?

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation and the largest Muslim-majority country, is also the third-largest democracy.

So, what’s behind the deportation proposal involving Indonesia and Albania? And did Israel suggest this to Trump as part of its normalization strategy to ease pressure on its Egyptian and Jordanian allies?

Why Indonesia and Albania?

After Donald Trump told reporters on January 26, 2025, about his proposal to relocate Gaza’s Palestinians to Egypt, Jordan, and “other Arab and Muslim countries,” Israeli Channel 12 and Yedioth Ahronoth analyst Amit Segal cited “senior officials” confirming that Trump’s statement was no slip of the tongue. Instead, they asserted, it was part of a much broader plan coordinated with “Israel.”

The following day, Channel 12 reported that Donald Trump plans to relocate 100,000 Palestinian refugees from Gaza to countries like Albania and Indonesia. This move is part of his vision to depopulate the war-ravaged territory, which has endured more than 15 months of Israeli genocide.

The report noted that Jordan’s large Palestinian population complicates the plan, while in Egypt, head of the Egyptian regime Abdel Fattah el-Sisi fears such a move, seeing the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas as direct threats to his regime.

Segal confirmed that the Trump administration is in talks with the Albanian government about relocating up to 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza. 

The Israeli sources believe Egypt and Jordan will reject “hosting the refugees,” making options like Albania and Indonesia more viable.

It appears that Trump and “Israel” chose Albania due to its history of accepting refugees, including Iranian opposition members sent by the U.S., Afghan migrants after the Taliban’s return to power, and irregular migrants transferred by Italy to the Shengjin port.

According to Channel 12, Trump’s plan to relocate 100,000 Palestinians to Albania stems from the country’s status as a “poor European nation in need of a workforce,” with the potential for offering significant incentives to convince it to accept large numbers of Palestinian refugees.

This isn’t the first time Trump has raised the issue. Just two days before his inauguration, in a phone interview on NBC News, Trump discussed relocating some Gaza Palestinians to Indonesia.

On January 18, the American network reported that the Trump administration has proposed Indonesia as one of the temporary host countries for Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians.

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Sugiono was one of the first to receive a call from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as claimed by The Israeli Times. “Rubio welcomed Indonesia’s willingness to engage in Middle East peace and post-conflict reconstruction,” says a U.S. readout on the call.

Islamic Rejection

Just as Egypt and Jordan rejected the idea, Indonesia announced that “any attempt to move Gaza Palestinians is a strategy to expel Palestinians from their homeland,” and rejected Trump’s request.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry denied receiving any information from any party about plans to relocate some of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians as part of post-conflict reconstruction efforts.

“Indonesia’s stance remains unequivocal: any attempts to displace or remove Gaza’s residents is entirely unacceptable,” according to the ministry statement.

“Such efforts to depopulate Gaza would only serve to perpetuate the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and align with broader strategies aimed at expelling Palestinians from Gaza.”

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama also denied these plans, “I haven’t heard something so fake in quite some time – and there’s been a lot of fake news lately! It is absolutely not true.”

The Albanian leader expressed “full respect and solidarity for the people of Gaza, who have been dehumanized by ‘the savage Hamas regime’ and have endured a hellish war amid the second year of genocide in Gaza,” but clarified that Albania was not requested by anyone to take in refugees, nor could it “even consider taking on any such responsibility.”

Rama highlighted Albania’s “strong friendships” with “Israel,” the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and “the Palestinian people, whose state Albania recognized a very long time ago.” He emphasized that Albania, as a European nation, is not located in the Middle East and cannot do more than other European countries in this matter.

“Yet, we wish and pray that the Palestinian people are given the chance to live in their own state, as free people under democratic rule, and that Hamas will never again be able to harm Israel -- or, first and foremost, the Palestinians themselves,” he concluded.

The Times of Israel, on January 27, noted that one of the goals of Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians to Indonesia, Albania, and other Islamic countries is to salvage Netanyahu’s government.

“The possibility that the American president could push for the relocation of ‘probably a million and half people’ from the ‘demolition site’ of today’s Gaza, could bring an end to Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich’s threats to leave the government,” anonymous sources told The Times of Israel.

It might also prompt National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who resigned from the government, to return to Netanyahu’s cabinet, keeping the right-wing coalition strong.

Normalization After Deportation

In a report published in 2024, the Israeli Mitvim Institute called for Indonesia to be part of the post-Gaza war plan, using the Muslim country’s capabilities and advantages to shape the “next day” after the war on Gaza, which “Israel” has been waging since October 7.

The institute justified this by stating that Indonesia possesses unique tools and capabilities in promoting moderate Islam, thus facilitating its engagement with the Palestinian community after the war.

It further claimed that normalizing relations with “Israel” would contribute to expanding common ground between Indonesia and moderate Sunni countries that have already normalized ties with “Israel,” allowing it to be a more active player in Middle Eastern affairs.

The Zionist Institute revealed its aim, linking displacement to normalization, by stating that this is being done against the backdrop of the Abraham Accords, the potential normalization of relations between “Israel” and Saudi Arabia, and the emergence of Indonesia as another candidate afterward.

It also highlighted that diplomatic relations with Indonesia would be a significant step in “Israel’s long-standing ambition” to find a path to the Islamic world, particularly the largest Islamic country.

The relentless U.S. and Israeli push to deport Palestinians to Indonesia and Albania reveals a strategic move to leverage this in their broader normalization efforts with Islamic countries—particularly Saudi Arabia, given its religious significance as the home of the Two Holy Mosques—hoping to inspire other nations to follow suit.

Yedioth Ahronoth reported on September 22, 2023, that “Israel” believes a series of Islamic countries are waiting for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Tel Aviv, so they can justify their own normalization by following the example of “the most important Islamic country,” the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It also noted that after an agreement with Saudi Arabia, “Israel” expects a flood of normalization with the Islamic world, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Oman, Mauritania, Comoros, and other African countries.

These reports on the “coming wave of normalization” are why Israeli newspapers have welcomed and encouraged the normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, emphasizing that the war between Hamas and “Israel” has hindered this Islamic normalization, much like it has hindered Saudi normalization.

Before Operation al-Aqsa Flood, a series of meetings and arrangements were made, mentioned by Netanyahu, his foreign minister, and top Mossad officials leading the normalization process, with officials from six Islamic countries.

They spoke about actual arrangements for normalization, with only the Saudi-Israeli normalization announcement needed to justify these countries’ normalization, presenting it as following the lead of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Despite the opposition of many Asian Islamic countries—particularly Indonesia and Malaysia—towards establishing relations with “Israel,” multiple media reports have indicated that the Israeli Occupation has succeeded in establishing “covert relations” with these countries to pave the way for normalization.

Following “Israel’s normalization of relations” with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, the Israeli ambassador to Singapore, Sagi Karni, stated in an April 7, 2021, interview with the South China Morning Post that Islamic countries in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, are expected to establish “fruitful relations” with “Israel.”

According to Karni, the Islamic world’s view of “Israel” is changing, and Tel Aviv hopes to develop diplomatic and political relations with Southeast Asian Islamic countries.

Although there are “covert relations” between “Israel” and Asian Islamic countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia that pave the way for normalization, ASEAN Today noted the presence of internal public pressures that obstruct this normalization. This domestic public pressure may be the primary factor preventing Islamic Asian countries from establishing diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, rather than simply waiting for Saudi Arabia’s lead.

This rejection of normalization has not stopped both Indonesia and Malaysia from secretly maintaining a friendly relationship with “Israel” to some extent, engaging in high-level visits and trade exchanges, though through third parties.

On January 12, 2021, researcher Syed Huzaifah Bin Othman Alkaff from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore wrote in an article published on RSIS that Indonesia’s hardline Islamic elements will strongly oppose any move by Indonesian policymakers toward normalizing relations with “Israel.”

Indonesian nationalists and Islamists are staunch and unwavering supporters of a Palestinian state and advocate for the Palestinians' right to independence.

This position extends to the political elite, including members of the Indonesian parliament, who see “Israel” as an occupying power. They base their stance on the country’s constitution, which mandates opposition to colonialism (occupation) because it contradicts the principles of humanity and justice. It asserts that “freedom is the right of all nations.”

Members of parliament and politicians consider “Israel” an occupying force, and therefore they reject normalization until the occupation comes to an end.

The situation is even more complex in the eyes of Indonesian Islamists, who consider “Israel” not only an “illegitimate occupier of Palestinian land” but also an “enemy of Islam,” according to a Singaporean researcher.