Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump shared a video on social media that quickly went viral.
Made with generative artificial intelligence, it featured Trump’s apparent vision for the future of the Gaza Strip . This includes a huge golden Trump statue, Elon Musk and Palestinian children throwing dollar bills into the air and Trump himself lounging bare chested, at a beach resort, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. An accompanying soundtrack contains the lyrics, “No more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here.”
The video comes on the heels of Trump’s suggestions that the US should take over the coastal enclave and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” The Trump plan includes relocating around 2 million Palestinians to other countries, most likely to Egypt and Jordan. The idea caused international anger and the UN stated that any such step could be considered ethnic cleansing.
The AI-created clip caused outrage, not just because it ignores Palestinian suffering, but because it recalls Trump’s “Riviera” plan again at a time when more realistic alternatives are being sought.
After over a year of conflict, more than 60% of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed during an Israeli military operation launched in retaliation for an attack by the Gaza-based militant organization, Hamas, on October 7, 2023. In this attack, around 1,200 people were killed and some 250 taken hostage into Gaza. The resulting Israeli army operation has killed some 48,000 people in Gaza.
In a recent report, the World Bank estimatedthat $53.2 billion (€51 bn) would be required for recovery and reconstruction in Gaza over a decade, with $20 billion (€19.2 billion) needed in the first three years to restore essential services, rebuild infrastructure and support economic recovery.
Joint Arab plan to counter “Riviera” proposal
Egypt has stated that it will take these assessments into consideration when the Arab League meets for a Gaza reconstruction emergency summit in Cairo on March 4.
“Egypt is very clearly aiming to present an alternative plan to the Trump proposal for Gaza,” Riccardo Fabiani, director of the North Africa project at think tank, the International Crisis Group, told DW. “The two principles of the joint Arab reconstruction proposal for Gaza are a future political strategy that is based on the two-state solution, and without any suggestion of displacement of the local Palestinian population.”
What options do Arab states have?
Any plan resulting from the March 4 summit will face limitations. “There are not too many options that would be considered acceptable by the Americans and the Israelis,” Fabiani explained.
Israel has repeatedly said it doesn’t support the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
“Arab leaders will also suggest putting in place a technocratic committee that would oversee the reconstruction efforts,” Fabiani continued. But such a committee of engineers, architects, economists and planners would also need to be accepted by Gaza’s official authority Hamas.
“For the Egyptians, it will be key that Hamas is not directly involved but [that they will still be] consulted on Gaza’s reconstruction efforts,” Fabiani said, adding that, “the Israelis don’t see Hamas anywhere in the picture, and also the Americans are quite skeptical.”
Nathan Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, considers a joint Arab proposal a “very powerful idea, in theory.”
“If the Arab world were to coalesce behind a specific proposal that says, ‘we will help with reconstruction in Gaza, we will help with normalizing relations [between Israel and Saudi Arabia], we will help build a region in which this issue is finally put behind us,’ then it would be very difficult for an American administration not to cooperate with it,” he told DW.
However, in practise, there are all kinds of barriers, he adds. “Number one: The American president himself is notoriously unpredictable. And there would still be real objections among the allies of the Israeli right within the American government,” Brown said. “Secondly, Israel is an incredible obstacle here.”
So, Brown argues, “any kind of Arab initiative that is based on treating the Palestinians as a national entity would have to be strong, and somehow able to persuade either Israeli public opinion.” Or they’d have to persuade the US to put intense pressure on Israel, Brown argues.
“Finally, there are internal obstacles in the Arab world,” he says. “These countries have never been able to define a strategic goal and pursue it.” It would be unlikely they are able to do so now, Brown told DW.
Ray of hope?
Despite these odds, the current situation could prove to be an opportunity. Sigrid Kaag, the newly appointed UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process , told the UN Security Council this week that it could be “the last chance to achieve a two-state solution.”
The first stage of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is ending March 1 and details of the next stage are being discussed. Kaag called on both sides to avoid a return to war at all costs.
Given that the Arab League’s emergency summit takes place shortly afterwards, on March 4, Cairo could use the momentum to propose a two-stage approach, Fabiani of the International Crisis Group told DW.
“Given the lack of clarity regarding the room for compromise and room for manoeuvre, I believe the Egyptians could prioritize reconstruction first and the political process — that would end eventually with the constitution of a Palestinian state alongside Israel — second,” he concluded.
Edited by Cathrin Schaer