Revealed: private jet owned by Trump friend used by ICE to deport Palestinians to West Bank

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Thu 5 Feb 2026 12.30 EST
Last modified on Thu 5 Feb 2026 15.15 EST


On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags. Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.

Dezer is also a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. His sleek Gulfstream jet – which he has called “my little rocket ship” – was used to transport the men from an airport near a notorious removal centre in Arizona to Tel Aviv. The jet made three refuelling stops en route: in New Jersey, Ireland and Bulgaria.

A Guardian investigation has established the flight was part of a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. One of those deported on the January flight was Maher Awad, a 24-year-old originally from the West Bank, who had lived in the US for nearly a decade.

Speaking to the Guardian in the town of Rammun, Maher shared photos of his girlfriend and newborn son in Michigan. Awad is one of several men onboard two recent flights who have been identified by the Guardian and the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine. “I grew up in America,” he said. “America was heaven for me.” On Monday this week, Dezer’s 16-passenger luxury jet was used a second time to transport another group of Palestinian deportees.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/05/revealed-private-jet-owned-by-trump-friend-used-by-ice-to-deport-palestinians-to-west-bank

[Faux pas]

1. DISGUSTING

[young_at_heart]

2. Is there nothing to be done?

We feel helpless!

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. We are as helpless as we believe we are.

And, right now, it seems everyone feels pretty helpless.

I find that almost shocking, to be honest.

[angrychair]

12. We are "helpless"

Because that is what we have been programmed to be. We have been told since little kids, especially my generation and older, to be quiet, be seen, not heard, do as you're told, respect authority, follow the rules, eat your vegetables, be polite, don't make waves, don't cause trouble and work hard until the day you die.

We have no frame of reference. We have been told that what is happening is impossible because we have three co-equal branches of government.
That has only been true as long as the chief executive of the Executive branch doesn't want to be a dictator. If he does want to be a dictator then it's actually pretty easy.
Honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet because it's now pretty clear that the executive branch is pretty free to do whatever it wants without any real repercussions.

They have violated dozens of court orders. Have reallocated Congressional appropriations at will with little to no push back. The executive has their very own shock troops. The military is completely falling in line and murdering people whenever they are told without question. Less that 2% of the population has protested and very rarely did more than a couple days at a time. We would need significantly more than that to make a difference.

Do you know French farmers were protesting something so they rode around their respective towns and sprayed down city halls and police stations and federal buildings with manure, like a lot of poop, and no one got arrested or beaten or killed.

My point is that there is little to stop them from having a dictatorship and while some of us might not like it I honestly think most would just bow their heads and do as they are told.

I'll be shocked even if we have midterm elections.

[OldBaldy1701E]

17. That was what I said in my first draft of my reply.

But, I felt it was too much for here these days.

I will also be shocked. Very, in fact.

But, what will shock me even more is the day they lose and, despite their bluster, they actually pick up and leave.

I am betting this is not going to happen. At all.

[highplainsdem]

3. Dezer has to be as much of a psychopath as Trump is, to do something like this.

[William Seger]

6. Absolutely -- he wanted the pleasure of personally destroying their lives and making them suffer (nt)

[Initech]

4. Seriously it's all connected.

All of these turds need to be purged from the government now.

[EarthFirst]

11. Purged from government is an understatement...

…purged from society would be justice.

[AllyCat]

7. These people are monsters to do this to people!

The pilot should have quit. So many people could just say no!

[2na fisherman]

8. Extreme Renditions

How soon will such private unidentified aircraft owned by Trump associates be used to fly targeted US dissenters miles over the sea to push them out without a trace?

[Grins]

9. There's a "Friends of the Israel Defense Forces?" In Miami???

Tell me again how Israel is not involved in American politics.

It took a long time for me to go from supporting Israel to hating Israel. This article is one more.

I wonder how Dezer would react if 8 JEWS had this done to them. (Actually; no, I don’t.)

[mcar]

10. I'll never understand why the "Free Palestine" protests stopped

once Trump was re-elected. Can anyone explain that to me?

[iemanja]

13. They didn't

There have been dozens of posts claiming that, and every time the OP and responders are presented with dozens of examples of continuing protests. Here is a list of recent and upcoming Gaza protests by just one organization. https://uscpr.org/pro-palestine-protests/ Despite such evidence, people continue to make false claims. Why is that?

The effect of those claims is to trivialize concern over the 70,000+ who have been killed in Gaza.

[perdita9]

15. Because they stopped causing chaos at local meetings

Prior to the election the Cease-fire Now people would attend local meetings and rage during the public comment section. Some of these meetings lasted 5 hours or more.

After Trump was elected -- silence.

[iemanja]

16. You know this how?

Because it’s not on your teevee?

[perdita9]

14. Any thoughts from the Michigan imans who endorsed Trump?

I will never understand why so many in the Muslim community voted for this monster