Trump's Gaza property deal plan prompts incredulity and fury
Starmer will face huge domestic pressure to call out Trump on a plan that amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Those who say Donald Trump sees everything in life as a property deal have been vindicated. The President prompted international fury today after he announced plans for a US “takeover” of Gaza, involving the expulsion of Palestinians and the re-making of the strip as the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Trump’s proposal was made all the more incendiary by the crass follow-up remarks of his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who added: "This guy knows real estate."
Trump’s claim that “Everybody I've spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs” is something we are yet to see evidence of. Bar Nigel Farage, who declared: “The thought of a wealthy, wonderful thriving place with well paid jobs, casinos, nightlife... it all sounds very appealing to me."
Arab nations, meanwhile, have fiercely rebuked Trump’s suggestion, made last night following a meeting with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, that Gazans could be “resettled” in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
The plan would likely shatter Trump’s ambition to oversee a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian foreign ministry said today that it "rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land", reinstating its position that it will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
Jordan also views the expulsion of Palestinians from their land as a red line for its peace treaty with Israel. Though Trump’s recent decision to cut US aid to Jordan - one of its largest aid recipients with a yearly $1.4 billion aid package - has prompted speculation that his administration may make Jordanian acceptance of Palestinian refugees a condition of restoration of aid.
This moment is a big test for Keir Starmer, who has been desperately trying to woo the US president. Earlier this week, his efforts appeared to be bearing some fruit when Trump suggested that Britain, unlike the EU, may avoid tariffs since Starmer has been "very nice" and the pair are "getting along very well".
Now, however, former human rights lawyer Starmer will face huge domestic pressure to call out Trump on a plan that amounts to ethnic cleansing. Under international law, attempts to forcibly transfer populations are strictly prohibited.
Today, Starmer refused to back the plan, though his criticism of the US president was muted. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that “the UK's position is there must be a scenario where Palestinians are able to return home", while rejecting the idea that Trump’s proposals could jeopardise the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.
Last month, Trump sought praise for succeeding where the Biden administration had failed and finally persuading Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire deal, despite his prior vow to press on with his military campaign in Gaza until he had achieved “total victory” over Hamas.
However, as I wrote at the time, it was unclear what Trump offered Netanyahu in return for signing a deal, and the speculation swirling at the time that he may have teased him with big future concessions rather rings true today.
One of the major problems with the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement is that, although the third stage of the deal is focussed on rebuilding Gaza, it does not address the long-term future governance of the strip.
While it’s thought that leaving this thorny question out of the deal was key to seeing it pass, it paved the way for major fallouts further down the line.
Of course, regardless of who is in charge of the future governance of the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction challenge will be mind-bogglingly complex.
Fifteen months of Israeli bombardment have destroyed or damaged approximately 70 per cent of buildings in the Gaza Strip.
The UN Environmental Programme says the water and sanitation systems is "almost entirely defunct" while the UNEP estimates it could take 21 years to clear the area of munitions and over 50 million tonnes of rubble, at a cost of up to $1.2 billion.
Caitlin Allen
Deputy Editor
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