A renewed and idyllically urban city, with magnificent skyscrapers surrounded by greenery. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared with partners the drafts of how war-torn Gaza could look in ten years, just a few months before the United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump revealed his controversial plans for a “Middle Eastern Riviera” that would see two million Palestinians displaced.
It should be recalled that Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that Gaza will be Israeli land and that Palestinians will be relocated to other countries.
These drafts, created by artificial intelligence (AI), were made public last week when the two leaders met at the White House, where Trump announced that he wanted to “relocate 2.3 million Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan,” where they would be “better off.” The U.S. president added that, after the war, Gaza would “transition from Israeli to U.S. hands.”
“If we can get a beautiful area for displaced people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be killed, as is happening in Gaza,” Trump added. It is assumed that Netanyahu showed Trump the “plans for Gaza’s redevelopment” – called Gaza 2035 – before his re-election campaign for the U.S. presidency.
“I think this was, in one way or another, presented to Trump. Trump did not wake up one morning and come up with the idea. There were probably pathways leading to this, likely from Israel – it was somehow planted,” assessed former Netanyahu strategist Nadav Shtrauchler.
At a White House conference on February 5th, Trump stated, “We have the opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal.”
A few days later, aboard Air Force One, he reiterated that he was “committed to buying and owning Gaza,” potentially allowing “other Middle Eastern countries to build parts” to prevent Hamas from returning. However, two days later, at a conference in the Oval Office, in the White House, he told Jordan’s King Abdullah II that the U.S. “would not buy anything” but pledged to take control and implement “economic development” in the Palestinian enclave.
Trump’s plans for a “Middle Eastern Riviera” without Palestinians were mocked and criticized globally, including in the U.S., where it was stated that “the president has no legal or military rights over Gaza because it is not U.S. territory.” Palestinians also reacted with outrage to the plans, saying their historical right to the land had been ignored, N1 writes.
Photo: Government of Israel
