The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has lashed out at the U.S. president for proposing to clear out, redevelop, and “own” Gaza.
“Trump is treating our national cause like a real estate deal” and is “deluded” if he believes “our people will accept this scheme,” the organization said in a statement. “Our Palestinian people will not kneel and will not leave.”
A recent article on Medium discusses how Donald Trump’s proposed American takeover of Gaza is comparable to the way the British absorbed India into their Empire in the mid-17th century. Just as India’s land and natural resources were sold off to capitalist investors from Great Britain, investor capitalists from the U.S. and Israel are licking their chops at the prospect of exploiting Gaza’s land and resources to maximize their bank accounts at the expense of millions of desperate and victimized Palestinians.
At a recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump elaborated on his proposed plan to redevelop Gaza into an upscale resort community catering to the lifestyles of the rich and famous:
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump wrote. “The U.S., working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”
The above paragraph accurately describes Trump’s sales pitch to potential investors in his Atlantic City properties. He described his hotel as the “Crown Jewel” of Atlantic City. Today, Trump is making the same sales pitch to potential investors in Gaza properties that he made forty years ago to investors in Atlantic City.
The agenda to privatize Gaza and make it safe for capitalist exploitation was first described by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a mega-billionaire real estate developer. In an interview Kushner gave one year ago, he speculated, “Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable. . . I think from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.”
While Kushner was praising the investment opportunities in Gaza for capitalist speculation, he also received billions in dollars from a Saudi investment fund. Even indirectly, those funds could be used to develop valuable waterfront property for expensive resorts and wealthy residential owners.
Shortly after his election, Trump echoed his son-in-law’s comments about the prospects for capitalist redevelopment in Gaza. Here’s what Trump said about Gaza:
“I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is, it’s really gotta be rebuilt in a different way,” he said, speaking to reporters at the Oval Office.
“You know, Gaza’s interesting. It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea. The best weather. You know everything is good. It’s like, some beautiful things could be done with it,” he said.
Speaking at the White House after meeting with his visiting co-conspirator in ethnic cleansing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump declared: “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it.”
Forty years ago, Trump expressed the same sentiments about the future of Atlantic City, where he built three casino hotels capitalized with junk bonds purchased by Wall Street investor capitalists on speculation. Within a few years all three of Trump’s hotels were faced with bankruptcy and financial ruin for ignorant suckers convinced by the huckster Trump that their investments were safe and secure.
Now, Trump wants to convince another group of greedy investor capitalists that he can do the same for them as he did to ignorant speculators in the junk bond marketplace. Shrewd and experienced investors will shun him as they pursue their agenda for real estate development in Gaza.
Trump’s billionaire son-in-law is Jared Kushner, who represents the titular head from his father-in-law of the family business, which is vulture capitalism that preys upon the existence of distressed properties and ultimately upon the victims of capitalist exploitation. The gentrification of Gaza to make it safe for investor capitalism will be accomplished from the forced removal of millions from Gaza in what will be the largest form of ethnic cleansing in recent history.
In Atlantic City, distressed commercial and residential properties were condemned to make way for the Trump Hotels and Casino complexes, resulting in the forced removal of thousands from their homes to make way for capital investment based on junk bonds issued by Wall Street investment bankers.
The end result was a speculative frenzy that culminated in significant bankruptcies, notably from the three hotels and casino properties owned and managed by the Trump Organization. Within a few years, Atlantic City was bankrupt, necessitating a takeover by the State of New Jersey. The ruination of Atlantic City in its totality, orchestrated by Donald Trump, was now complete.
What Donald Trump did to Atlantic City is a warning of what is to come for Gaza if Trump has his way.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, this article reflects the views of its author.
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