Middle East Riviera: Monetizing Gaza Ruins

The US administration has once again revealed its moral blindness by reviving the fantasy of turning Gaza into a “Middle East Riviera.” Branded as “Project Sunrise,” the initiative—first reported by the Wall Street Journal—presents itself as a visionary reconstruction plan. In reality, it is a deeply cynical attempt to monetize devastation while erasing Palestinian political existence.

Marketed as a decade-long transformation of Gaza into a high-tech coastal hub, the plan is anchored in luxury housing, tourism, AI-managed infrastructure, and private investment. Glossy presentations speak of smart cities, high returns, and urban renewal. What they conspicuously avoid mentioning is the fate, rights, or consent of Gaza’s 2.4 million Palestinians—the very people whose land is being redesigned.

At its core, Project Sunrise is less about reconstruction than control. It conditions any rebuilding on Hamas’s total disarmament, a demand Israel and the United States failed to achieve after two years of relentless war. If one of the region’s most advanced militaries could not impose this outcome through force, the assumption that it can now be achieved through PowerPoint diplomacy borders on fantasy.

The proposal’s credibility erodes further with its emphasis on a new administrative capital, “New Rafah,” designed to house more than half a million people in southern Gaza. Framed as orderly development, these risks becoming population transfer by stealth—concentrating civilians away from their homes while large parts of Gaza are redeveloped under rigid security and investment regimes. History shows that such “development-led relocation” often serves as a precursor to permanent displacement.

Equally troubling is the project’s financial logic. Washington has committed roughly 20 percent of the estimated US$112 billion cost, positioning itself not as a guarantor of rights, but as a stakeholder expecting influence and returns. The involvement of figures linked to Trump’s real estate networks reinforces the perception that Gaza’s ruins are being treated as a commercial opportunity rather than the aftermath of mass suffering.

Nowhere does the plan address accountability for the devastation, the ongoing blockade, or the thousands still buried beneath rubble. Palestinian self-determination is absent; justice is ignored. Instead, Palestinians are reduced to a population to be managed, not a people with rights.

Trump’s vision offers luxury towers atop unresolved injustice. Without addressing occupation, security, and political freedom, the “Middle East Riviera” will remain what it truly is: a real estate fantasy built on denial.