Tag: Board of Peace

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

“Not anchored in law, nor in facts. Just glossy real estate pitch decks dreamt up by Jared Kushner.”

The presentation on the future of Gaza given by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, inyelloe Davos on Thursday, offered what one journalist called “a sanitized, cosmetic image” of an exclave that, due largely to US policy, is actually “a place that needs immediate help and support for people who are on the verge of collapse.”

Kushner presented a four-phase “master plan” illustrated by CGI-generated images of luxury apartments, data centers, and futuristic-looking skyscrapers.

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In the “New Rafah,” built over the southern town that the Israel Defense Forces razed last year and forced hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to leave, Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” plans to build more than 200 education centers and over 180 cultural, religious, and vocational buildings.

The “New Gaza” plan seeks to build 100,000 permanent housing units in all as well as 75 medical facilities. A map presented by Kushner shows yellow “residential areas,” bright pink zones set aside for what Kushner called “coastal tourism,” sections of land dedicated to industrial data centers and “advanced manufacturing,” and green sections for “parks, agriculture, and sports facilities.”

The presentation showed that “the ethnic extermination plan is two-pronged: Kill as many as possible, then gentrify the rest out,” said entrepreneur David Haddad.

Before Israel began its US-backed destruction of Gaza in 2023, which has killed more than 71,000 people, and destroyed more than 90% of housing units, the exclave’s healthcare system included 36 hospitals, fewer than 14 of which were still partially functional as of October, when a “ceasefire” was agreed to and Trump began moving forward with his 20-point “peace plan.”

The presentation Kushner gave Thursday was part of that plan, with four phases of transformation beginning with the opening of the Rafah crossing and moving northward through Khan Younis and Gaza City, with a seaport and airport also being built.

The master plan, said Kushner, is projected to cost $25 billion, and would ultimately result in “peace and prosperity” in Gaza.

“People ask us what our plan B is, we do not have a plan B. We have a plan, we signed an agreement, we are committed to making that agreement work,” Kushner said. “There’s a master plan. We’ll be doing it in phasing. In the Middle East, they build cities like this, in, uh, you know, 2, 3 million people. They build this in three years. And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”

International lawyer Itay Epshtain said that as with the “’peace to prosperity’ fantasy,” the so-called master plan “won’t come to pass.”

The proposal, he said, is “not anchored in law, nor in facts. Just glossy real estate pitch decks dreamt up by Jared Kushner. Meanwhile, real humanitarian relief, recovery, and peace for Palestinians are sidelined—sacrificed to delusions of grandeur and war profiteering.”

At the “signing ceremony” for the Board of Peace—which includes no Palestinians and has no support from the United States’ major longtime European allies—Trump said he approached the development of Gaza as “a real estate person at heart.”

“It’s all about location, and I said, look at this location on the sea, look at this beautiful piece of property, what it could be for so many people,” Trump said. “It’ll be so, so great. People that are living so poorly are going to be living so well.”

That outlook, said Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera, is one that views Gaza as a “future investment project.”

“That’s the problem,” said Mahmoud. “It is not being dealt with as a place where people are being killed and starved, and being pretty much cornered in every way possible by the acts that the Israeli military is conducting on the ground. The danger stems from the fact that Gaza is being discussed as an investment and a planning site, rather than as a place where people are being killed on a daily basis—largely ignoring the displacement, the genocidal acts, the starvation, and the misery.”

Dilly Hussain of the UK-based news outlet 5 Pillars, said Kushner had proudly presented a plan for a “mega city built on the mass graves of Palestinians after a two-year genocide sponsored by the US.”

“No accountability, just business as usual,” said Hussain, “with the chief genocider [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu sitting on the ‘Board of Peace.’”

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

inyelloe, unveiled at?

exclave, enclave