Wednesday’s (January 21st) announcements at the World Economic Forum in Davos, including Jared Kushner’s presentation of a so-called “New Gaza” plan and the creation of a U.S.-backed “Gaza Peace Board,” are deeply dishonest, dangerous, and untethered from realities on the ground.

What Kushner presented in Davos, and Trump named a real-estate project, imagines Gaza “rebuilt from scratch,” filled with luxury residential towers, seaside resorts, industrial zones, and tech infrastructure, a vision fundamentally disconnected from reality. It deliberately sidesteps the most basic questions that any legitimate reconstruction process needs to confront: who owns the land being redeveloped; what happens to Palestinians whose homes, neighborhoods, and livelihoods were destroyed; where displaced families are expected to live while rebuilding takes place; and who, if anyone, will guarantee compensation, restitution, and enforceable legal rights for Palestinians, the natives of the land. 

Most glaringly, the plan proceeds as though reconstruction can occur while Gaza remains under genocide and siege, with Israel continuing to restrict movement, obstruct humanitarian aid, and violate the very ceasefire meant to enable recovery. Rebuilding cannot be achieved while a population continues to be bombed, starved, and displaced. When redevelopment is discussed in the absence of rights, restitution, and Palestinian self-determination, it is not reconstruction. It is dispossession repackaged as investment, a vision that treats Gaza not as a home to millions of people with legal and political rights, but as a blank slate for outside interests once the destruction is deemed “manageable.” This has a name: colonialism. It mirrors the foundational logic of Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine, when the land was falsely framed as empty, underutilized, or lacking legitimate political life to justify its seizure.

The only difference here is that this iteration cloaks itself in the language of “peace,” “stability,” and “economic opportunity,” presenting foreign control and imposed restructuring as benevolent intervention. It advances the same colonial premise: that Palestinians are incapable of governing themselves, that their political agency is a threat rather than a right, and that salvation must come from external actors empowered to decide Gaza’s future without its people.

Historically, framing domination as rescue has been a core feature of colonial projects. By casting Palestinians as inherently disorderly, violent, or unfit for self-determination, this process attempts to legitimize permanent control, erase Palestinian sovereignty, and normalize the transfer of power, land, and decision-making to outside forces under the guise of peacebuilding.

This Davos spectacle, and the broader “peace plan,” is all about such power: who gets to define “peace,” who gets a seat at the table, and which institutions get pushed aside. From the outside looking in, this Board is being created as a new global mechanism, with rhetoric that has gestured toward supplanting UN functions, a posture that reinforces what much of the world already recognizes: the United States repeatedly undermines multilateral accountability when it conflicts with its political agenda, isolating itself further from global consensus and weakening the international system meant to uphold law and protect civilian life.

And then there is the most grotesque detail of all: the likes of Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal, being invited to and accepting a seat on a “peace” body tasked with shaping Gaza’s future. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant issued for him on November 21, 2024. Elevating a leader who should be arrested for committing genocide in and destabilizing Gaza into a “peace board” meant to help “stabilize” the same territory is institutionalized impunity. The Board itself is stacked with political actors and private-sector power brokers who have helped launder denial, repression, and the dismantling of accountability into “policy.” 

Peace is not a brand. Gaza is not a development opportunity. And Palestinians are not an obstacle to be managed while the elites workshop maps and renderings. Trump’s plan continues to expose itself for what it is: a real-estate fantasy and a political project built on denial, impunity, and the attempted erasure of Palestinian rights. Nothing here is signaling an actual path to peace.

Key Facts Based on Realities on the Ground

Claim: Gaza is in a ceasefire and ready for reconstruction
Fact: Since the so-called ceasefire began in October 2025, Israel has violated it more than 1,300 times by

• Attacking Gaza on 89 out of 104 days of the ceasefire period.
• Murdering at least 477 Palestinians and injuring over 1,300
  
  

Claim: Humanitarian conditions have stabilized
Fact: Israel continues to obstruct life-saving aid.

• The ceasefire agreement promised 600 aid trucks per day.
• Only ~260 trucks per day have entered Gaza — about 43% of the agreed amount.
• Israel continues to block mobile homes, shelter materials, fuel, and essential supplies.
• At least nine children have died from hypothermia this winter, a direct result of mass displacement, destroyed housing, and aid obstruction.

Claim: This is a forward-looking plan for peace and recovery
Fact: Phase 1 of the ceasefire was never upheld.

• Israel has continued airstrikes, shelling, raids, property destruction, and arrests.
• Civilians are still being killed while officials discuss “Phase 2” and Gaza’s political and economic future.
• You cannot plan reconstruction while actively violating the agreement meant to stop the destruction.

Claim: The Gaza Peace Board brings legitimacy and balance
Fact: The board includes a wanted war criminal.

• Benjamin Netanyahu is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
• Inviting a wanted war criminal onto a “peace” body is institutionalized impunity.

Claim: This process supports international order
Fact: It sidelines and undermines the UN.

• The structure and rhetoric of the Gaza Peace Board suggest a deliberate effort to bypass or replace UN-led mechanisms, institutions the United States has repeatedly undermined and refused to respect, further isolating itself from the international community and weakening the very system designed to uphold international law and accountability.
• Peace cannot be imposed through elite boards, donor leverage, or privatized “deals” that erase Palestinian rights.