A dystopian cartoon titled “Gaza Beach 2030” by award-winning Dutch artist Peter de Wit portrays parents sunbathing on a Gazan beach while their toddler unearths human skulls from the sand. This haunting imagery now intersects with real-world geopolitical plans as Jared Kushner, former U.S. President Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy, unveiled a controversial vision for Gaza’s future at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Kushner’s proposal envisions a transformed Gaza Strip featuring gleaming skyscrapers, coastal tourist attractions, and commercial districts operating under “free market economy principles” modeled after Trump’s America. The presentation included AI-generated renderings depicting a cityscape resembling Gulf Arab states rather than traditional Palestinian architecture, complete with cultural inaccuracies such as Arabic text written in the wrong direction.
Analysts universally condemned the proposal as colonial capitalism exploiting tragedy. Daniel Levy, a British-Israeli analyst and former peace negotiator, characterized it as continuation of profit-seeking from genocide, noting that over 71,500 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict recognized as genocide by UN experts and human rights organizations.
Palestinian political analyst Abed Abou Shhadeh invoked Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” to explain the phenomenon, stating: “They see the death of people as an opportunity to take their land, to take their apartments, and to take the rights over their land.” He predicted profiteers would include not only American and Israeli interests but also Arab businesspeople and wealthy Palestinians, while excluding the Palestinian people collectively.
Renowned British-Israeli academic Avi Shlaim called the plan “preposterous and obscene,” noting its “total denial of any Palestinian agency.” Critics highlighted the irony of Kushner promoting this vision while his private equity firm had received substantial investments from Gulf states including UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia after leaving the White House.
Practical implementation appears unlikely according to most analysts. Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who resigned over the Gaza war, noted the prerequisite of Hamas’s complete disarmament would be improbable given Israel’s military failure to achieve this despite extensive operations. She warned Trump should remember American failures in Iraq and Afghanistan when considering forced transformations of foreign territories.