Leaked ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan dismissed as ‘insane’ attempt to cover ethnic cleansing
Prospectus proposes forced displacement of entire population and puts territory into US trusteeship
A plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population.
On Sunday the Washington Post published a leaked prospectus for the plan, which would involve the forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population of 2 million people and put the territory into a US trusteeship for at least a decade.
Named the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust – or Great – the proposal was reportedly developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with financial planning contributed by Boston Consulting Group.
Most controversially, the 38-page plan suggests what it calls “temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population” – a proposal that would amount to ethnic cleansing, potentially a genocidal act.
Palestinians would be encouraged into “voluntary” departure to another country or into restricted, secure zones during reconstruction. Those who own land would be offered “a digital token” by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere.
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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/01/leaked-gaza-riviera-plan-dismissed-as-insane-attempt-to-cover-ethnic-cleansing
People’s Conference for Palestine draws thousands in struggle against genocide
Original article by Natalia Marques republished form peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
The second annual “People’s Conference for Palestine” seeks to strengthen the growing movement for Palestinian liberation within the United States – Israel’s largest political and financial backer
The second annual People’s Conference for Palestine opened Friday afternoon, August 29, bringing together thousands of people of conscience in Detroit, Michigan. “Through this conference, I invite all of you to take part in the rich revolutionary tradition of Detroit,” said Nelson Garay, a member of Detroit’s People’s Assembly, a grassroots coalition fighting back against Trump’s policies. “In one voice, let us declare that we will not stand for the dehumanization of the Palestinian people, and we will not stand for anything less than their true liberation from a genocidal, apartheid state.”
Taher Dahleh, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and an activist in the labor movement through his membership in the Communication Workers of America, opened the conference by describing the major milestones in the Palestine solidarity movement since last year. “Millions marched to break the siege, flotillas set sail one after the other, doctors risked lives, went through repression, every single possible means to participate in medical missions to provide life-saving aid, and millions of workers, regular people, organized for an arms embargo, to demand that companies like Maersk halt all complicity and stop shipping weapons components to the occupation.”
The conference is being organized by a coalition of 12 groups active in the broader Palestine solidarity movement: the Palestinian Youth Movement, the US Palestinian Community Network, The People’s Forum, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the ANSWER Coalition, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the People’s Center for Palestine, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and the Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC).
Last year’s conference was held after a fierce wave of student protest against ongoing complicity of US institutions and government in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This year, thousands of activists once again reconvene as the situation in Gaza reaches a humanitarian breaking point: the entire population of the Gaza Strip is being deliberately starved en masse by Israel.
“Freedom Flotillas” take a stand against mass starvation
In protest of Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid in Gaza, several “Freedom Flotillas” have set sail carrying life-saving supplies including food, baby formula, and medical supplies. Each of the three flotilla missions launched this year has been blocked by Israeli forces.
In one particularly brutal example of Israeli state repression, all the passengers aboard the most recent Flotilla, the Handala, were kidnapped by Israeli forces and held in custody by Israel. US labor activist Chris Smalls, also the only Black passenger aboard the Handala, faced the most brutal repression. “They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back,” the Freedom Flotilla coalition wrote in a post on X. “When his lawyer met with him, Chris was surrounded by six members of Israel’s special police unit. This level of force was not used against other abducted activists.”
Smalls gave opening remarks at this year’s conference. “As a labor leader, it is our responsibility to be a shield for the working class,” Smalls said, addressing an auditorium of thousands. In 2022, Smalls led the successful effort to create the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States, the Amazon Labor Union. “It is our responsibility to stand up when things are uncomfortable, and take a stance.”
Victories in the global movement for an arms embargo
At last year’s People’s Conference for Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement announced the launch of “Mask Off Maersk,” an international organizing campaign aiming to expose the role of logistics giant Maersk in sending weapons components to Israel.
Through international pressure, this campaign has marked significant victories since last year. In June, Maersk became the first global shipping company to divest from companies in Israeli settlements. The campaign raised global awareness of Maersk’s role in supplying Israel, to the point where people across the globe mobilized against Maersk shipments. In April, Moroccan protesters successfully delayed Maersk ships leaving the country for Israel. In November of 2024, the Spanish government announced it had blocked two ships operated by shipping giant Maersk and carrying military cargo bound for Israel.
Speaker Aisha Nizar, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, spoke at a plenary on the topic of the global demand for an arms embargo on the lessons learned from one year of the “Mask off Maersk” campaign. “We need to be surgical. We need to be strategic, and we need to be bold in our actions. Because there are many different points of these supply chains of death that we can intervene in, and we must intervene in.”
Original article by Natalia Marques republished form peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
As Trump Targets Chicago, Mayor Fights His ‘Tyranny’ With Executive Order
Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people,” Mayor Brandon Johnson declared. “We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart.”
Continuing the battle against US President Donald Trump’s “erratic and petulant behavior,” Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order responding to the Republican’s threats to deploy federal immigration agents and potentially National Guard and active-duty troops to Illinois’ biggest city.
Just before signing the order, Johnson told journalists that he would have preferred to work with City Council to pass legislation, “but unfortunately we do not have the luxury of time,” given “credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government.”
Asked about which specific reports he was referring to, the mayor just said that the deployment could occur as soon as Friday, so he had to take “immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach.”
“We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people,” he declared. “We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents. We don’t want to see Chicagoans arrested for sitting on their porch. That’s not who we are as a city, and that’s not who we are as a nation.”
A spokesperson for the suburban Naval Station Great Lakes confirmed to Military Times earlier this week that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has contacted the base about possibly using it for immigration enforcement activities.
The Chicago Sun-Times obtained an email in which the station’s commanding officer, Navy Cpt. Stephen Yargosz, told his leadership team: “These operations are similar to what occurred in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Same DHS team.”
According to the newspaper, Yargosz added in his Monday email that “this morning I received a call that there is the potential also to support National Guard units. Not many details on this right now. Mainly a lot of concerns and questions.”
In addition to targeting California’s largest city, Trump has recently federalized Washington, DC’s police force and deployed the National Guard there—and he has threatened to similarly target other Democrat-led cities, despite their falling crime rates.
As the Sun-Times reported Saturday:
White House officials have distinctly said the operation in Chicago would mirror Los Angeles more than DC, which saw thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of active-duty Marines—some of whom are stationed there through November—activated to quell protests against immigration raids.
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the president, their communities would be much safer,” wrote White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. “[Democrats] should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser who recently celebrated the Trump administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington, DC.”
Johnson’s order against Trump’s “tyranny” states that the mayor demands the president “and any agents acting under his authority stand down from any attempts to deploy the US armed forces—including the National Guard—in Chicago.”
“The city will pursue all available legal and legislative avenues to counter coordinated efforts from the federal government that violate the rights of the city and its residents, including the constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, and the right to due process,” the document warns.
The order also establishes the Protecting Chicago Initiative, which will include making information regarding residents’ rights and federal government action available; coordinating efforts to identify and address community needs; and regularly submitting public records requests to DHS, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection.
The document states that the Chicago Police Department “shall remain a locally controlled law enforcement agency” under the authority of the city and the mayor, no CPD personnel shall participate in civil immigration enforcement, and all officers, “when engaged in any law enforcement, crowd management, or public safety operations, will wear department-authorized uniforms.”
It further says that “CPD officers are prohibited from intentionally disguising or concealing their identities from the public by wearing any mask, covering, or disguise while performing their official duties,” and “all other law enforcement officers, including federal agents, as well as members of the military operating in Chicago, are urged to adhere to these requirements to protect public safety and promote accountability.”
Under Trump, federal immigration officials have often donned masks—which has led to people targeted for arrest questioning whether they are encountering real agents, as well as criminals impersonating agents.
During Saturday’s signing event, Johnson said that his office has communicated with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and the state’s congressional delegation, and “we are in complete alignment.”
The mayor’s move won praise from the Chicago Teachers Union, which said in a statement that CTU “stands in firm opposition to the president’s threat to occupy our city with federal forces and terrorize our communities. As educators working and living in every one of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods, we know that safety does not come from federal forces invading our city. Real safety comes from the types of community investments that Mayor Johnson has made into public health, public education, summer youth jobs, affordable housing, small business development, and mental health care.”
Noting Trump’s recent attacks on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the union said that “if Trump wants to spend a million dollars a day in Chicago, he can send it for crossing guards to help our children move safely across this city, for Safe Passage to make sure that our children have a friendly face to see on their journey back and forth to home, for SNAP benefits to make sure our children have the nutrition they need to thrive and flourish, for special education and dual language supports for our students, and for healthcare so their families can afford the medicine and care they need.”
“The CTU applauds Mayor Johnson for taking steps to protect the rights of Chicagoans, and to not be conscripted into Trump’s threatened occupation of our city,” the union continued. “We stand in solidarity with all of our fellow Chicagoans, as we say no to occupation and demand that our federal tax dollars be used to provide the services our communities actually need: healthcare, SNAP, and fully funded schools to our communities, not to send federal troops to terrorize them.”
“This is why we will join tens of thousands of Chicagoans on Monday at 11:00 am, for the Workers Over Billionaires march and rally,” the CTU added. “This Labor Day, we will be in the streets of our city, marching peacefully, to say NO to Trump, his occupation, and the billionaire takeover of our country.”
Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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Venezuelan youth train to “defend the Homeland and construct the future” amid US escalation
Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
As the US escalates its threats against Venezuela, youth of the PSUV engaged in a week-long “Basic Revolutionary Resistance Training”
The youth wing of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) carried out “Basic Revolutionary Resistance Training” over the past week in the Venezuelan state La Guaira. On the evening of August 28, the youth participated in a 10 kilometer night march led by Secretary General of PSUV, Diosdado Cabello.
The training took place amid rising tensions between Washington and Caracas. The situation flared up when the administration of US President Donald Trump reiterated accusations that the Venezuelan government plays a major role in drug trafficking, increasing the bounty on the head of President Nicolás Maduro, and at the same time deploying troops to the Caribbean to support the US “war on drugs”.
Read more: Trump’s smokescreen on Venezuela: Exposing the “narco-state” accusation
“The socialist youth, with its morale and rebelliousness, is ready for the defense of the Homeland and the construction of the future,” said Cabello who also serves in the administration of the Bolivarian Republic.
The Chavista leader expressed that these trainings seek to build a combative youth in view of recent events that increased pressures on the South American country: “Chávez dreamed it and we are making it a reality, a combatant corps of the youth of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.”
The activities are taking place after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, called on all branches of the Armed Forces, including the militia, and the PSUV to be on high alert and prepared for a potential US attack.
Read more: Venezuela mobilizes 4.5 million militia members as US deploys troops to the Caribbean
Meanwhile, the military enlistment days organized by Chavismo continue to advance throughout Venezuela. According to Venezuelan authorities, “thousands of people have responded to the government’s call to join the ranks of the national defense.”
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in this regard: ‘’The workers are highly conscious of what it means to defend our homeland; today we heed the call of President Nicolás Maduro to defend our nation…We are ready to defend the social happiness of our people, to defend the future, to defend Venezuela’s right to exploit and develop its productive capacities.”
The United States continues to reinforce military and diplomatic positions.
On August 14, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the deployment of several military vessels in the southern Caribbean Sea after declaring that Maduro is the alleged leader of the so-called Cartel de los Soles.
This organization has already been designated as a terrorist organization by Washington, which many analysts have seen as a tactic to attack Venezuela and thus overthrow the Chavista government.
In addition, several US allies in South America, Ecuador, Paraguay and Argentina, have also declared the Cartel de los Soles as an international terrorist organization, which can be interpreted as a form of alignment behind Washington’s geopolitical pretensions.
However, other countries in the region such as Colombia and Mexico, led by progressive presidents Gustavo Petro and Claudia Sheinbaum respectively, have expressed that they will not support a military intervention on Latin American soil as they consider that it goes against the principle of non-intervention that characterizes the foreign policy of several countries in the region.
“We will never be in favor of intervention by a foreign country.”
🇲🇽In her daily morning press conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to a question by a journalist about a possible US military intervention in Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/XJ3DUJCmJF
— Peoples Dispatch (@peoplesdispatch) August 27, 2025
Washington continues to reinforce its military positions in the Caribbean, specifically in Curacao and Guyana, countries that have granted permission to the US military to dock in their coasts.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has begun a tour of Latin America and the Caribbean to seek greater support for the Trump administration’s position on Venezuela and to rally more support for his regional strategy. Mexico and Ecuador will be part of Rubio’s tour.
Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.