A few days ago, the world watched as convicted felon President Trump, sitting next to a criminally indicted, grinning Netanyahu, pitched his proposal that would purportedly “save” Gaza’s people. Using careful, calculated wording and passive voice he painted Gaza as a “civilisation of wonderful people [... but a very unlucky place, [...] a symbol of death and destruction for decades” and proposed, as if with the best interests of Palestinians at heart, “getting them a beautiful location where they can be happy and not shot, not be killed, not be knifed to death,” according to CNN.
What Trump omitted, however, was the context of Gaza’s suffering—as if he was mercifully saving them from a random humanitarian disaster zone caused by an earthquake, and not from a place rendered uninhabitable by 50,000 tons of US bombs and a genocidal state next to him, that counts as Washington’s closest ally. Far from a humanitarian gesture, Trump’s plan mirrors a long history of forced displacement and settler-colonial ambitions disguised as benevolence.
This idyllic picture of a “beautiful town somewhere else” with “good quality housing,” where Palestinians can live their lives “in peace, harmony and safety,” appears quite a compassionate plan, albeit a bit too utopian. As CNN reports, when asked who would bear the cost of his grand humanitarian project and where it would take place given that all neighbouring countries have categorically rejected proposals to take Palestinians in, he appealed to “the humanitarian hearts” of “other countries in the Middle East, and there are many of them”.
It would almost be believable—if Trump was not the man that built his entire political brand on forcibly stopping people from moving countries; shutting borders, caging children at the borders, calling asylum seekers criminals and rapists, sending immigrants back home shackled inside military aeroplanes.
The idea of forced resettlement for Gaza’s population is not new and innovative, as Trump likes to present it. Israeli leaders have pursued it since 1967 when Israel seized Gaza. As Middle East expert Soumaya Ghannoushi notes, the Prime Minister at the time, Levi Eshkol, and other members of the cabinet such as Moshe Dayan and Yosef Sapia repeatedly tried to empty Gaza, with the latter suggesting that they “should take them to Jordan by the scruff of their necks and throw them there,” as reported by Middle East Eye.
Now, that vision of mass expulsion of people who are mostly refugees from the towns and villages’ genocidal cleansing in 1948, is very interestingly, official US foreign policy. To make it palatable, it’s all being rebranded, as a merciful, voluntary migration; although it is not.
According to Malak A. Tantesh, in Gaza, and Emma Graham-Harrison, in Jerusalem, both reporting for The Guardian, the reality on the ground tells a different story from the official narrative of “voluntary migration.” Most Gazans reject the idea entirely, insisting on their right to remain and rebuild.
As Ibrahim Ahmed Ame, a resident of Rafah, shared with The Guardian, “If they want two states, fine. If not, we remain here. This is the land of our ancestors; they are the ones that came from the other side of the world, bringing killing, destruction and displacement.”
The sentiment is echoed by fellow Rafah resident Ibrahim Abu Rizk, who resists the notion of abandoning his home, even in its current state of ruin. “Living under the rubbles of our homes is better than living in humiliation elsewhere,” he declared to The Guardian. His words underscore a fundamental truth: for many in Gaza, dignity and homeland are inseparable, and exile—no matter how it is framed—is not an option.
The Real-Estate Facade
This time, however, the US is not just supporting displacement—it is actively envisioning a future where Palestinians have “no right to return” to Gaza. The Strip, in this vision, would be transformed into a lucrative real-estate venture, with Donald Trump himself describing it as “an international unbelievable place… The Riviera of the Middle East, with hotels, offices, housing, so magnificent,” as BBC reports.
His comments, dripping with capitalist ambition, sparked global outrage. Critics were quick to point out the transactional logic behind this proposal, reducing an occupied land and its people to a real-estate opportunity.
Among them was British journalist on LBC, Andrew Marr, who dismissed Trump’s approach with biting sarcasm: “Truth is, not all the world’s problems, Donald, can be solved by a real-estate deal.” The response was even sharper from journalist Ash Sarkar on Novara Media, who framed the proposal as a sinister blend of profit-driven imperialism: “Ethnic cleansing with a side of real estate? That’s the American way, baby.”
Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, as Middle East Eye reported, pushed back against the very premise of outside powers dictating Gaza’s future: “No one has the right to say how Gaza will be rebuilt other than the Palestinians”.
But is real estate the true motive behind Trump’s proposal of what Ash Sarkar terms a “Miamification” of Gaza? Indeed, as Novara Media reveals, in February last year, Jared Kushner, husband to Ivanka Trump and a leading figure in Middle Eastern and Israeli affairs during Trump’s first term, addressed the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and pitched his idea of “mov[ing] the people out and then clear[ing] [Gaza] up [..] because Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable”.
But there is a lot of smoke and mirrors—and on purpose. The US President could raise shiny condos and towers anywhere without inciting huge geopolitical tensions and breaking international law. Trump, Ghannoushi argues, “is not just another greedy developer looking for land. He’s both a racist colonialist and a ruthless businessman”.
His proposal reveals the three-phase Gaza ceasefire, on effect from 19th January, as a lie that not only tells of a decades-old attempt to force Palestinians out of their land but one that obscures what is really at stake: another settler-colonial attempt at eradicating a native population sitting on a land bursting with resources. It is settler colonialism dressed as late-stage capitalism.
Gaza’s Gas Grab
Sure enough, Reuters and other major media outlets (AA and Middle East Monitor) have reported that, in the last decade and a half, the Gaza Marine field has been discovered to contain 1.6 trillion cubic tonnes of natural gas. Already in December 2022, Israel’s Ministry of Energy had organised an offshore bidding round for exploration in Palestinian waters.
Following that, on October 30th 2023—just four weeks into the conflict—the Ministry awarded 12 gas exploration licences to BP and five other companies, for areas recognised under international law as “within Gaza’s maritime boundary.”
There are legal issues with that though. The Middle East Monitor reports that officials such as Attorney Suhad Bishara, director of Adalah’s Legal, Land and Planning Rights Unit, have since issued multiple letters towards the Israeli Energy Ministry, warning that:
“Israel, as a de facto administrative authority and occupying power in the occupied territories, cannot consume natural resources for commercial purposes that do not benefit the occupied population.”
If America ‘owns the land’ in Gaza, as is Trump’s plan, rather than simply occupying it, it also owns the Gaza marine field, which would potentially resolve the barriers to exploiting the region's resources. The question is: why get rid of the population and “level out” the place to achieve the above?
Settler Colonialism’s Endgame: Erasure and Reconfiguration
To answer this, it is helpful to look into the characteristics of settler colonialism. Leading historian Lorenzo Veracini in Introducing Settler Colonial Studies notes that “colonisers and settler colonisers want essentially different things [..] Whereas colonisers use a logic of commodification to demand that people work for them, settler colonisers use a logic of evacuation to demand that people go away, clearing the land for resource exploitation by imported populations.”
Historian Patrick Wolfe meanwhile, in his “theory of elimination,” coined in Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native, defines settler colonialism as an “ongoing structure of power that systematically erases native people from the land (through genocide, assimilation and other means) and replaces them with settlers from around the world”.
In other words, settler colonisers do not merely exploit people and lands for economic interests; they displace them and substitute them, to stabilise the new status quo as much as possible.
Unknown to many, the US, along with Israel, have a long-term manner of burying native presence in Palestine. After 1948, Israeli powers indulged with great zest into a most insidious kind of settler-colonialism: geo-alteration of the land.
To cover the ruins of Palestinian villages that were violently emptied during the first Nakba—where 95% of the Indigenous population was massacred or forcibly displaced—250 million trees were planted in Palestine, Slow Factory reports; a large percentage being non-Native pines and eucalyptus, paid for by the US under the slogan “Make the dessert green.” A great example is the Birya forest, Israel’s largest man-made forest (measuring up to 20 sq. km), strategically planted over the ruins of not one, but six Palestinian villages.
This “green” or otherwise “infrastructure colonialism” ensures permanent erasure more than any other kind, because it destroys visually and geomorphologically any remains of ancestral land, making it impossible for rematriation to occur.
What the Palestinians will look at, if and when they return, will be a different land, a foreign place. Sure enough, the UNRWA Situation Report #141 states that, since October 2023, Israel has destroyed 70% of agricultural land in Gaza. Now with Trump’s new motto being “level it out,” any traces of Palestinian civilisation in Gaza are prone to be erased, along with the destroyed buildings.
“Netanyahu,” according to economist scholar Yanis Varoufakis for Novara Media, “has a very long history, about 20-25 years, of ridiculing every American president he worked with, running rings around them, and destroying any possibility of a two-state solution”.
Donald Trump is no exception. But he has taken it indeed a step further from his predecessors already. No nations, no people, no histories, no identities can stand between him and profitable deals to be made. And that kind of capitalism is the perfect means for the infrastructure colonial violence Netanyahu covets. No wonder he was grinning through the entire press conference.
Trump’s proposal is not about economic prosperity, or even real estate development—it is the latest manifestation of a decades-long project aimed at erasing Palestinian presence and permanently restructuring the land to fit imperialist and capitalist interests. It is a now-or-never time for international accountability to come through; meanwhile, the wondrous Palestinian resilience and resistance keeps on.
“Gaza is no longer a city. It is a burning battlefield in which the adversary’s victories, hopes and values are tested. The illusory facts on the ground he is trying to create, thinking that time is on his side, will be mocked by that very same time, as well as by the trail-crushing defeats past invaders suffered in the alleyways of Gaza at the hands of its sons and daughters” (Mahmoud Darwish, Immortal Gaza, 1971)
Edited by Eshal Zahur
Fani Apospori (she/her) has just finished an MSc in Literature and Modernity with Distinction at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and is a Climate Correspondent at Political Pandora. She is particularly interested in the deconstruction of disciplinary boundaries in the humanities and beyond and is seeking to employ new ways of using arts and culture to reframe and diversify climate narratives, particularly in coastal countries.
She is currently engaged in community-led climate action communications and engagement in the UK, specializing in environmental justice through multimedia storytelling.
Disclaimer
Any facts, views or opinions are not intended to malign, criticise and/or disrespect any religion, group, club, organisation, company, or individual.
This article published on this website is solely representative of the author. Neither the editorial staff nor the organisation (Political Pandora) are responsible for the content.
All illustrations in this piece are original works created exclusively by the Design Department of Political Pandora.
These illustrations are protected and are not available for replication, reproduction, or redistribution in any form without explicit written consent from Political Pandora. Unauthorized use, including but not limited to copying, modifying, or redistributing, is strictly prohibited.
Photographs in this particular article are taken from external sources and are not a property of Political Pandora. The use of these images are not meant for commercial purposes.
While we strive to present only reliable and accurate information, should you believe that any information present is incorrect or needs to be edited, please feel free to contact us.
References:
LBC Radio, “Tonight with Andrew Marr 05/02”, 5 February 2025, Tonight with Andrew Marr 05/02 | Watch Again - LBC. Accessed 8 February 2025.
Liptak, Kevin. “Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip and doesn’t rule out using American troops”, CNN, 4 February 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/04/politics/netanyahu-trump-white-house-meeting/index.html , accessed 21 February 205.
Middle East Eye [@middleeasteye] “Gaza Has Already Answered Trump”, Instagram, 7 February 2025, https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFwRYv4TDRr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==, accessed 10 February 2025.
Middle East Monitor, “Israel grants licence for gas exploration within Palestine's maritime boundary”, 16 February 2014, Israel grants licence for gas exploration within Palestine’s maritime boundary – Middle East Monitor, accessed 12 February 2025.
Nessouli, Αfeef. “Green Colonialism in Palestine”, Slow Factory, Green Colonialism in Palestine, accessed 12 February 2025.
Novara Live. “Trump Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza”, Novara Media Youtube, 6 February 2025, https://novaramedia.com/2025/02/05/trump-calls-for-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/ , accessed 21 February 2025.
Rabinovitch, Ari and Steven Scheer. “Israel awards gas exploration licences to Eni, BP and four others”, Reuters, 30 October 2023, Israel awards gas exploration licences to Eni, BP and four others | Reuters, accessed 10 February 2025.
Sarkar, Ash. “Trump’s Gaza Resettlement Plans Didn’t Come out of Nowhere”, Novara Media, 7 February 2025, https://novaramedia.com/2025/02/07/trumps-gaza-resettlement-plans-didnt-come-out-of-nowhere/ , accessed 21 February 2025.
Suleiman-Malley, Yasir. "Mahmoud Darwish’s “Immortal Gaza”." The Massachusetts Review, vol. 65 no. 4, 2024, p. 13-16. Project MUSE, doi.10.1353/mar.2024.a947209.
Tantesh, Malak A. and Emma Graham-Harrison. “Palestinians in Gaza on Trump’s plan: ‘We Would Rather Die Here than Leave’”, The Guardian US, 5 February 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/05/palestinians-react-to-trump-plan-for-gaza?utm_campaign=feed&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio, accessed 12 February 2025.
Temizer, Murat. “Israel Grants Gas Exploration Licenses in Areas Considered to be Within Palestine's Maritime Boundary”, AA, 15 February 2024, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-grants-gas-exploration-license-in-areas-considered-to-be-within-palestines-maritime-boundary/3138367, accessed 12 February 2025.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). "UNRWA Situation Report #141 on the Situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Including East Jerusalem." UNRWA, 4 Oct. 2024, https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-141-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem , accessed 21 February 2025.
Veracini, Lorenzo. “Introducing Settler Colonial Studies.” In Special Issue: A Global Phenomenon. Settler Colonial Studies, 2011, 1.1, pp. 1–12, DOI: 10.1080/2201473X.2011.10648799.
Wolfe, Patrick. “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.” Journal of Genocide Research, 2006, 8.4, pp. 387–409. DOI: 10.1080/14623520601056240.
Keywords: Gaza Genocide, Trump Gaza Plan, Forced Displacement, Settler Colonialism, Palestinian Rights, Israel Palestine Occupation, Gaza Real Estate, US Foreign Policy, Netanyahu War Crimes, Middle East Crisis, Gaza Natural Gas, Humanitarian Crisis, Imperialist Policies, Ethnic Cleansing, Palestinian Resistance.
Comments