Some Israeli far-right leaders held a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss redeveloping Gaza into a tourist-friendly “riviera”, as Palestinians face a worsening humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory.
The meeting, titled “The Riviera in Gaza: From Vision to Reality”, was held in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, under the auspices of some of its most hardline members.
It saw the participation of firebrand Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as activist Daniella Weiss, a vocal proponent of Jewish settlements in Gaza, among others.
The name of the event evokes a proposal floated by US President Donald Trump in February to turn the war-ravaged territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after moving out its Palestinian residents and putting it under American control.
Palestinian families on the beach of Gaza City. Photo: EPAThe idea drew swift condemnation from across the Arab world, and from Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the “Nakba”, or catastrophe – the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.