Political Analysis: Trump and the Riviera of Gaza

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By: Prof. Dr. Mohsen Mohammad Saleh.

Neither the land is his, nor the people, nor the sky, nor the sea…!! What does Trump want from Gaza?!

With a haughty and arrogant mindset, Trump presents his plan for the postwar period in Gaza Strip (GS), seeking to impose a decade-long US trusteeship over the Strip, expropriate its lands, and place its inhabitants in a hostile environment designed to compel migration, offering only nominal compensation. No Palestinian administration would be permitted, not even under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. Instead, governance would be placed under joint Israeli-US supervision, before ultimately being handed over to a client authority structured according to Israeli specifications.

In whose name does Trump decide? and for whose benefit? who granted him the right to dispose of land and people? It appears that the colonial mindset of the US and the eliminatory logic of Israel perceive the Palestinian people (and, more broadly, the Arab and Muslim populations) as a backward Eastern entity with a marginal personality, devoid of any national or civilizational identity. They are regarded either as sub-humans or as economic units whose problems can be solved purely within an economic framework. According to this mindset, Palestinians lack national consciousness and have no genuine attachment to their homeland; they are seen as a transient presence in Palestine, with rights that are incidental and temporary, their existence no different from their absence. Consequently, the notion of “a land without a people” reflects a mindset that treats the people of Palestine as absent, as if they do not exist, even though they have inhabited and cultivated the land for thousands of years. Dr. ‘Abdel Wahab Elmessiri previously elaborated extensively on this mindset.

The GREAT Trust:

The project, known as the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration, and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust for short, outlined in a 38-page prospectus, envisions transforming GS into 6–8 AI-powered smart cities featuring high-rise residential towers, waterfront resorts, industrial zones and modern infrastructure. However, the Trump administration is not committed to funding the project directly, as it is intended to rely on private and public-sector investments… The plan was developed by Israelis and US nationals, in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group.

The plan envisions compulsory compensation for landowners, without the right to refuse, offered in the form of digital tokens redeemable for apartments in the new planned cities or for cash payments. Residents of GS would be encouraged to leave the Strip in exchange for modest financial incentives and temporary living assistance. Those who remain would be confined to restricted, secured zones resembling “detention camps” and forced to live in an inhospitable environment.

The Question of Destruction and Reconstruction:

The décor and slogans that may appear appealing to some, about the so-called “Riviera of Gaza” and its reconstruction, fail to answer a fundamental question: if Trump truly seeks to rebuild GS, then why has the US administration been, and continues to be, a principal partner in its destruction?! Why has it supplied Israel with more than 90 thousand tons of weapons and explosives over the past two years, equivalent to nearly six nuclear bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima?! Why has it provided cover for Israel to sustain its brutal campaign, one that has demolished more than 350 thousand homes along with most hospitals, schools, mosques and critical infrastructure, while blocking any international resolution that would compel Israel to halt the war?!

The compensation for the devastation wrought by Israel and its US ally is a legitimate and legal right of the people of GS, without condescension or conditions, and without conferring the slightest privilege or gain upon those who committed and abetted crimes of destruction. Such compensation in no way diminishes the full national and legal rights of the people of GS.

The Question of Displacement and Settlement:

How can the reconstruction of GS serve its people if it entails displacing its residents, confining them to security zones in preparation for their expulsion, or establishing harsh conditions designed to force their departure? What benefit would the people of GS derive from rebuilding a land given over to others and controlled by their enemies, where settlers, opportunists and war profiteers enjoy its wealth, its land and its shores?! In such a scenario, the Palestinian would become “a stranger in appearance, hand and tongue,” stripped of their homeland, deprived of their identity, and subjected to a fabricated, falsified reality shaped by Israeli, US and Western interests.

How can a territory be served by destroying the national identity of its people, erasing their institutions, and denying them the right to self-determination?

What value do stones hold if the human being is destroyed? And what worth do buildings, investments, factories and beaches have if they are seized by a band of thieves, while their rightful owners are dispossessed?

If Trump (and the US administration) truly cared about GS, why did he provide political cover for Israel’s ongoing massacres, which have killed nearly 64 thousand Palestinians and injured more than 160 thousand others? Why did he shield Israel’s systematic starvation of the Strip’s population?!

Resolving Israel’s Problem:

It is clear that Trump is preoccupied with resolving Israel’s “problem” in GS, rather than the problem of the people of GS with the Israeli occupation. He is intent on rewarding the criminal occupier and punishing the victim… He is committed to crushing the resistance and stripping it of its weapons, to displacing the population, and to ensuring Israel’s future control over the territory. This is the “justice” of the US administration, marked by a colonial superiority complex and infused with its “Evangelical messianic” spirit.

What Trump Must Understand:

Trump doesn’t understand the fundamental nature of the conflict: a confrontation between a colonial-settler, expansionist enemy and a people striving to liberate their land.

He neither doesn’t understand the nature of the people of the region, their deep-rooted civilizational heritage, vitality, dignity and resilience, and that oppressive, exceptional circumstances, compounded by weak, corrupt and authoritarian regimes, do not subjugate them but rather propel them toward defiance, resistance and revival.

Trump doesn’t understand how GS and its resistance have endured for 23 consecutive months with extraordinary, steadfastness, despite every form of violence, devastation and starvation; nor why the overwhelming majority continues to reject both disarmament of the resistance and forced displacement, and in fact rallies in clear majority behind Hamas and the path of resistance.

He has not asked himself why, within less than a week of the January 2025 ceasefire, more than half a million Palestinians returned to the devastated northern GS.

In short, what Trump must understand is that the “human being” in this region is not subject to subjugation. He will neither relinquish his freedom and independence nor accept the substitution of one form of colonial domination for another, whether the US in place of Israel.

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Trump’s plan for GS is, in essence, an Israeli scheme, albeit wrapped in US mechanisms, language and cover. It stands as a brazen testament to a colonial vision that is hostile and demeaning to the people of the region, treating them as less than human and erasing their national, religious and historical rights.

The plan was met with an unequivocal Palestinian rejection. It was also opposed internationally, including by European states.

Arab countries, for their part, have adopted an alternative reconstruction plan for GS valued at $53 billion, which preserves the population of GS, rejects displacement, and assigns the administration of the territory either to the PA or to a temporary Palestinian consensus committee composed of technocrats and independents. Leading European countries such as France, Britain, Germany and Italy endorsed the Arab proposal.

Ultimately, the Palestinian people will resist Trump’s plan and will bring it down, just as they have defeated dozens of forced-relocation schemes over the past seventy years.