by RAYHAN UDDIN
Analysts say proposal for shiny skyscrapers and coastal attractions resemble the Gulf, deliberately wiping away Gaza’s heritage
A harrowing cartoon
by Peter de Wit depicts parents sunbathing on an idyllic beach in Gaza,
while their toddler blissfully digs up skulls in the sand.
De Wit’s “Gaza Beach 2030” won the award for best political cartoon in the Netherlands last year.
Now, a plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law might just bring such a dystopian image to reality.
Jared Kushner, who serves as a US special envoy, announced plans for a “New Gaza” – complete with shiny skyscrapers, coastal tourist attractions and entire districts dedicated to business and commerce.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kushner told global leaders that the Palestinian enclave would be run under “free market economy principles”.
He said these would seek to mirror the “same mindset and same approach” as Trump’s America.
Analysts believe that this plan is yet another example of corporations and individuals attempting to profit from war and genocide.
“People have made money from this genocide and it’s a continuation,” Daniel Levy, a British-Israeli analyst and former peace negotiator, told Middle East Eye.
More than 71,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war on Gaza, which has been recognised as a genocide by the United Nations, genocide scholars and human rights organisations.
As an example of such profiteering, Levy mentions the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a highly controversial project set up by the US and Israel in which private contractors were accused of turning aid distribution into a “profit-driven death trap”.
Abed Abou Shhadeh, a Palestinian political analyst based in Jaffa, cites Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism as perfectly encapsulating how conflicts and disasters are exploited by powerful entities.
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