Leaked 'Gaza Riviera' plan dismissed as 'insane' cover for ethnic cleansing

A plan circulating in the White House to develop the "Gaza riviera" as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an "insane" attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory's population.

- Peter Beaumont Alice Speri

The Washington Post published on Sunday a leaked prospectus for the plan, which would result in the forced displacement of Gaza's entire population of 2 million people and put the territory into a US trusteeship for at least a decade.

Named the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust - or GREAT - the proposal was reportedly developed by some of the same Israelis who created the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, with financial planning contributed by Boston Consulting Group.

Most controversially, the 38-page plan suggests what it calls "temporary relocation of all of Gaza's more than 2 million population" - a proposal that would amount to ethnic cleansing, potentially a genocidal act.

Palestinians would be encouraged into "voluntary" departure to another country or into restricted, secure zones during reconstruction. Those who owned land would be offered "a digital token" by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere. Those who stayed would be housed in properties with a tiny footprint of 323 sq ft.