A new pan-Arab plan for the reconstruction of Gaza has failed to persuade President Donald Trump to drop his controversial proposal for the US to occupy the strip and redevelop it into a luxury Mediterranean resort after forcibly evicting the embattled Palestinian population.
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Based on World Bank and United Nations Development Programme assessments, which have estimated the cost of Gaza’s reconstruction at US$53 billion, the plan unveiled on Tuesday and approved by the 22-member League of Arab States at a summit in Egypt envisions a three-phase, five-year recovery process without any population displacement.
“After Trump’s proposal, Arab states felt impelled to come up with an alternative,” said Barbara Slavin, a distinguished Middle East fellow of the Stimson Centre think tank in Washington.
Clemens Chay, a research fellow of the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute, said the Arab plan for Gaza “represents a projection of solidarity” by Arab leaders in a bid to counter Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” proposal.
The Egyptian-authored proposal underscored the broad consensus in the Arab world that Trump’s vision “does not sit well not just with ruling elites, but also with their public”, Chay said.
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In its response, the White House thanked “our Arab partners in the region” for their “input” but said Trump “stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas”. Trump’s proposal has been widely criticised by various leaders and security analysts as a formula for ethnic cleansing.