“I think it’s a hope for the US as well as for Israel that the people of Gaza will stop resisting and will no longer live there,” said Laila Ali, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement. [Getty]
In a candid moment on inauguration day, US President Donald Trump appears to be suggesting there is nothing left of Gaza, making it ripe for beach front resort development and recolonisation for Israel.
Though it was brief, many saw it as setting the tone for the next four years—by a president who puts his business interests ahead of human rights and who doesn’t seem to see a future for Palestinians living in liberty and dignity.
“Gaza is like a massive demolition site. The place, it’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way,” he said, addressing reporters on the ceasefire and future of the enclave.
When asked by a reporter if he would help rebuild it, Trump said, “I might. You know, Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location, on the sea. The best weather, you know, everything is good. It’s like, some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting. But some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.”Â
When asked how he sees the future governance in Gaza, he said that “you certainly can’t have the people that were there. Most of them are dead, by the way.”
He made these comments after saying he wasn’t confident the ceasefire would hold and that it was “their war” despite ongoing US military assistance to Israel.
The newly elected second-term president and long-time real estate developer has been open about his business ambitions on the campaign trail, and he has repeatedly shown contempt to Palestinians, at one point using the word “Palestinian” as a slur while debating Joe Biden. Â
“It’s a way to demoralise the Palestinian people, to look at the rubble. Instead of seeing a way to rebuild, Trump is seeing this as an opportunity to raze all of Gaza to create a real estate venture. It seems like Trump is trying to normalise the idea of taking over Gaza,” Laila Ali, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, told The New Arab.
“I think it’s a hope for the US as well as for Israel that the people of Gaza will stop resisting and will no longer live there. They were excited to finally be able to take a breath after the onslaught of violence,” she said. “Instead of giving up, we in the diaspora need to uplift them.”
How realistic would it be for Israel to recolonise the enclave and develop seaside resorts in Gaza? Based on history, concerns over such a move wouldn’t be unfounded. Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in the 1967 War, territory that it later illegally annexed and which the US eventually recognised during Trump’s last administration.Â
“Well, if a former Arab-Israeli conflict zone on the [Syrian] Golan Heights now has a ski resort, wineries, and other tourist attractions, at least on the Israeli side, it is not impossible to imagine the Gaza Strip developing into a resort area at some point in the future,” David Lesch, a history professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, told TNA.
For the area to be redeveloped for tourism, he says that would require a stable Palestinian government, though that’s assuming it remains Palestinian.
