(LifeSiteNews) — Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner unveiled a massive real estate plan aimed at transforming the devastated Gaza Strip into a tourist hub and beach resort on the Mediterranean Sea during a presentation at the World Economic Forum on Thursday.
Undeterred by sharp resistance from the majority of the world after President Donald Trump’s initial announcement of the plan last February, Kushner proposed the reconstruction of the strip could be completed within three years if Hamas fully disarms.
Speaking at the signing ceremony for Trump’s “Board of Peace,” Kushner, the son-in-law of the U.S. president, shared a set of slides illustrating his group’s vision for the Gaza Strip after 58 years of illegal Israeli military occupation, oppression and most recently, genocide against the Palestinian people there.
It also reflects a vision of the strip under the hypothetical conditions of a demilitarized Hamas, which has repeatedly refused to disarm arguing that it would leave them defenseless against continued aggressions from the Israeli army. Since the October 10 “ceasefire” agreement, credible reports indicate Israel has violated its terms over 1,000 times, killing more than 460 Palestinians and injuring around 1,200.
Kushner’s power point included computer-generated images of high-rise buildings along the coast with rows of residential structures elsewhere in the strip.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented a ‘master plan’ for Gaza’s future at Davos, unveiling maps and graphics and outlining how the U.S. intends to implement the initiative. pic.twitter.com/2qUTv2eZf0
— ConflictLive (@conflict_live) January 22, 2026
Labeled the “Master Plan,” the blueprint divides Gaza into sections marking off the entirety of the coast — from where Palestinians have launched their fishing boats for centuries — as “coastal tourism,” with a seaport and an airport marked out for construction near the Egyptian border.
The map shows isolated residential areas alongside industrial regions with “data centers” that, according to slides presented in a Wall Street Journal report, will power “smart cities” with “tech-driven governance.” Some experts have shown that these new technologies raise issues regarding mass surveillance, data privacy, and control over personal information.
Kushner plan ‘the completion of the genocide’
Absent from the presentation was any discussion regarding maintaining or restoring Palestinian cultural sites, or were any Palestinians mentioned as having given input regarding how their own internationally recognized territory would be managed on lands officially acknowledged to be part of the State of Palestine by over 80% of UN member states in addition to the Holy See.
Commenting on the Kushner plan, former Greek finance minister and author Yanis Varoufakis stated on Thursday, it is “the completion of the genocide. This is the logical limit of what Israel has been doing: to treat Gaza as a piece of real estate. Palestinians don’t exist. They can only exist as servants.”
Of note, the $112.1 billion “Master Plan” did not include any proposals for what the approximately two million displaced Palestinians in Gaza will do, or go, during such supposed reconstruction, or any mention of compensation for Palestinians’ for their loss of land and wealth.
The plan does indicate that significant profits would be made by tech investors and real estate developers but not by Palestinians, who are projected to be 100% employed earning household incomes of just $13,000 per year.
Denouncing the plan late last month, Catholics for Catholics president John Yep said, “The news that the Gaza Strip could be turned over to billionaires like Jared Kushner seeking to build upon the graves of thousands of innocent Gaza civilians comes as no surprise.”
“While many of the modern-day Pharisees have rebuked those courageous influencers drawing attention to the genocide that took place on these bloodied lands, we must never forget the thousands of women and children along with the Christian community and the only Catholic Church standing that was indiscriminately bombed to make way for these resorts.” He went on to implore further that humanity must “address this grave scandal and hold those (responsible) accountable for the genocide.”
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 71,562 Palestinians in Gaza, including approximately 22,000 children, at a confirmed minimum, with at least 171,379 people injured, including over 10,000 children who have lost at least one leg. These dead do not include around 10,000 who are missing and presumed dead and buried under the rubble.
READ: Israeli army shot thousands of Palestinians seeking food and later bulldozed corpses: report
According to a rationale presented in a Lancet study in July 2024, one can conservatively estimate total deaths, including indirect fatalities due to causes like starvation, lack of medicine or proper medical care, to include 357,810 (157,436 children).
‘Genocide of the Palestinians continues … death by 1,000 cuts’
Commenting on Kushner’s “imperial plans,” Palestinian-American author and activist Susan Abulhawa said its purpose is “to erase Gaza’s indigenous character, turn what remains of her people into a cheap labor force to manage their ‘industrial zones’ and create an exclusive coastline for ‘tourism.’ Palestinians will be pushed behind walls and gates, retrained in ‘technical schools’ to serve Israel’s supremacists ideology.”
“The indigenous traditions and social fabric of this land will be obliterated utterly,” she posted, also noting, “The so-called ‘board of peace’ is composed of and controlled by Zionists. Not one single Palestinian is on the board.”
In the meantime, with some word play, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and international attorney Francesca Albanese commented that Kushner’s plan was megalomaniacal, farcical, and “superbly illegal.”
And with Israel’s ongoing siege of the strip only allowing in a trickle of humanitarian aid, Albanese reaffirmed, “The genocide of the Palestinians continues, looking more and more like a death by 1,000 cuts.”
