Trump: Displacing the population and replacing homes with "smart cities" in Gaza.
Arabian Sea Newspaper - Special
**Arab Gulf_Taher Hani:** While the Gaza Strip lives under the rubble of a devastating war that has left tens of thousands of victims and millions of displaced people, US President Donald Trump is proposing a controversial vision: transforming the Strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East." The plan is based on displacing the population and replacing their destroyed homes with "smart cities" and luxury hotels under temporary American administration. Despite Israeli welcome, this plan faces widespread Arab and international rejection and warnings of a new "ethnic cleansing." Despite Gaza's transformation into a zone of ruin and destruction after more than two years of Israeli bombardment, US President Donald Trump still sees it as land for real estate investment and building skyscrapers like those in New York. Trump wants it to become a tourist area similar to the French "Côte d'Azur." According to the Washington Post, which revealed the plan being prepared by the Trump administration for post-war Gaza, it will be based on placing the Strip under American administration for 10 years with the aim of transforming it into the "Riviera of the Middle East." The plan, consisting of 38 pages, stipulates the displacement of the Strip's population of about two million people to neighboring countries or to "safe" areas within devastated Gaza, with each person who agrees to leave receiving $5,000 in addition to aid covering four years of rent and one year of food. As for landowners, they will be offered "digital tokens" that can be exchanged for apartments in six to eight "smart cities" that rely on artificial intelligence, or used to finance a new life outside Gaza. The plan includes the establishment of electric car factories, data centers, and hotels funded by public and private investments. "The GREAT Trust" According to the American plan, a temporary authority called "The GREAT Trust" will be established to administer the Strip for a full decade before handing over power to a "reformist, open, and non-extremist Palestinian entity." The newspaper points out that some of those who drafted the plan are Israelis associated with the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation," a private organization supported by Israel and the United States, which has previously been heavily criticized for its method of distributing food aid in the Strip. Arab Rejection and International Warnings Last February, Trump proposed the idea of his country taking control of Gaza and transforming it into the "Riviera of the Middle East" after evacuating it of its inhabitants, who, according to his vision, could be displaced to Egypt or Jordan. This plan was widely welcomed by the extreme Israeli right, but it was met with widespread Arab and international rejection, while the United Nations warned of the risk of "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza. Husni Abidi, professor of international relations at the University of Geneva, believes that Donald Trump has not abandoned his plan, even though he faces categorical Palestinian and Arab rejection. He said in a telephone interview with France 24: "The meeting he had with his son-in-law (Jared) and (former British Prime Minister) Tony Blair last week is worrying. It is not unlikely that the work of the United Nations General Assembly, which will be held at the end of this month and will focus on the two-state solution, will provoke the anger of Trump and Netanyahu, as they are seeking to find an alternative plan to the Saudi-French project." Abidi added: "Turning Gaza into a tourist product is an idea from his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a real estate conflict. Tel Aviv wants to embody this project on the ground through a policy of ethnic cleansing supported by Donald Trump." "Trump's announcement is just media hype" The professor of international relations at the University of Geneva confirms that the American president exerted strong pressure and imposed sanctions on both Egypt and Jordan to accept his proposal, but the two countries realize that the forced displacement of Palestinians poses a threat to their national security. Therefore, accepting it is tantamount to betrayal and liquidation of the Palestinian cause." He concluded: "Gazans will never accept mass deportations from their land. Accepting Trump's project in Gaza means accepting the construction of a new luxury settlement and the theft of Palestinian land." As for the Egyptian academic and political researcher Mahmoud Al-Afandi, he believes that Trump's announcements are merely intended to stir up the media. He is a man of media suspense and dreams only because the necessary tools to produce this project (transforming Gaza into a tourist and real estate area) do not currently exist." He continued: "Where will the Palestinians go, especially since their number has increased after the war due to the high number of births? In addition to this, Trump's project is difficult to achieve. How can Israel and the United States displace one and a half million Palestinians outside their land? And if we compare that to the 1948 war and the displacement that occurred and the 1967 war, the number of Palestinians who were displaced was not large, and four countries had agreed to receive them, namely Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. But now there is no country that wants to do that."
