A White House plan to turn Gaza into a “Riviera” of
megacities has been condemned as “insane,” with critics calling it cover for
mass ethnic cleansing.
A leaked prospectus for the proposal, which would entail the forced relocation of Gaza's 2 million inhabitants and putting the region under US trusteeship for a minimum of ten years, was released by the Washington Post on Sunday.
The plan, known as the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or Great, was allegedly conceived by some of the same Israelis who founded and launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is supported by both the US and Israel, with Boston Consulting Group providing financial planning.
The 38-page plan's most contentious recommendation is the "temporary relocation of all of Gaza's more than 2 million population," which would amount to ethnic cleansing and possibly genocidal action.
During reconstruction, Palestinians would be urged to relocate "voluntarily" to another nation or into safe, restricted areas. The trust would give landowners "a digital token" in return for the ability to renovate their land, which they might use to fund a new life elsewhere.
Those who remain will live in homes that are just 323 square feet in size, which is extremely small even when compared to many non-refugee camp homes in Gaza.
The plan's alignment with US policy was unclear, and the Washington Post's request for comment received no response from the State Department or the White House.
“This is a blueprint for mass deportation, marketed as development. The outcome? A textbook case of international crimes on an unimaginable scale: forcible population transfer, demographic engineering, and collective punishment,”
Grant said.
Subtitled "From a Demolished Iranian Proxy to a Prosperous Abrahamic Ally," the extremely optimistic prospectus seems to have been drafted by individuals who have no firsthand knowledge of Gaza, Middle Eastern politics, or the difficulties that would arise in trying to rehabilitate the region as a multibillion-dollar tourism and technology hub that would unavoidably compete with Israel.
The $100 billion plan, which is said to require no US assistance, envisions a thriving port city that is divided by a watercourse and surrounded by up to eight lush, AI-powered high-tech megacities. It appears to be based on Saudi Arabia's problematic Neom project.
The most damning, however, is the fine print, which implies that Palestinian self-determination has not been taken into account and makes no distinction between Gaza, Israel, and Egypt in terms of sovereignty.
Israel would retain ill-defined "overarching rights" over Gaza "to meet its security needs" under the plan. Trump's Abraham Accords would be joined by a "Palestinian polity" instead of a Palestinian state.
What legal arguments label the Gaza Riviera plan as forcible population transfer?
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly
forbids "individual or mass forcible transfers" or deportations of protected
persons from occupied territories, regardless of motive. The Gaza Riviera
plan's proposals for "voluntary" relocation are viewed skeptically by
legal experts.
The plan is said to violate the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, specifically Article 7(1)(d) banning "deportation or forcible transfer of population" as a crime against humanity, and Article 8(2) relating to grave breaches such as property appropriation.
Gaza is recognized internationally as occupied Palestinian territory. The forcible displacement or permanent removal of its population by an occupying power (or under its authority) violates their right to remain in their homes and self-determination.