The people of Gaza are returning to what remains of their homes, even as the world watches the devastation unfold. They are not seeking refuge elsewhere; they are asserting their right to exist on their land, no matter the destruction. And yet, to Donald Trump and his allies, Gaza is not a homeland, it is a business opportunity, a blank slate for redevelopment once its people are gone.
Gaza Through the Eyes of a Real Estate Mogul
Steve Witkoff, a billionaire developer and Trump’s Middle East envoy, recently described the grim reality in Gaza as if it were a minor inconvenience. “People are moving north to get back to their homes and see what happened and turn around and leave … there is no water and no electricity,” he told Axios. His words revealed more than indifference; they hinted at a blueprint. Gaza, in this vision, was never meant to be rebuilt. It was meant to be erased. Trump himself has expressed admiration for Gaza’s “phenomenal location” and “best weather,” as if scouting a site for a luxury resort. To him, Gaza is not Palestinian land, it is prime Mediterranean real estate, waiting to be “repurposed” once its people have been forcibly removed. But Gaza is not for sale. It is not an empty lot awaiting investment. It is home to millions who refuse to be displaced.
The Plan: Destruction, Displacement, Dispossession
The idea that Gaza’s destruction would be followed by reconstruction is a fantasy. The reality has always been about forced depopulation. Billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry was not used to pave the way for rebuilding, it was used to ensure that nothing remained. The displacement of Gaza’s population was never an unintended consequence; it was the goal. Trump has made no secret of his belief that Palestinians should be relocated to Egypt or Jordan. When challenged on the fact that both nations have refused, his response was chilling: “They will do it. They will do it. They’re gonna do it.” This was not a diplomatic proposal—it was a declaration, an assertion that pressure and force would be enough to move entire populations, as though people were mere obstacles to be relocated at will. This is not policy. This is ethnic cleansing.
A Longstanding Ideology of Erasure
Trump’s endorsement of forced migration is not new. It aligns perfectly with the worldview of Israeli leaders who have long sought to rid Gaza of its Palestinian inhabitants. Since Israel’s occupation of Gaza in 1967, figures like then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol spoke of plans to “empty out Gaza” quietly and systematically. Former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan once suggested that only a fraction of Gaza’s population should remain, while the rest “must be removed from there under any arrangement that’s made.” The language used today mirrors these past strategies. The far-right Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are two Israeli lawmakers who have publicly advocated for the mass displacement of Palestinians. Witkoff recently met with Smotrich, who hailed Trump’s proposals as “out of the box” solutions, a euphemism for forced relocation. This is not a shift in Israeli policy; it is a continuation of an old project to make Gaza uninhabitable.
Biblical Warfare as Justification
In early 2024, Israeli government ministers attended a far-right gathering where the wholesale relocation of Palestinians was presented as a religious duty. “But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those that ye let remain of them shall be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell,” the Book of Numbers was quoted as support. This is not simply an occupation. It is a campaign to permanently erase Palestinians from Gaza. And it is a policy that Trump and his allies have openly embraced.
The People of Gaza Will Not Leave
And yet, despite all the destruction, the starvation, and the bombings, the people of Gaza refuse to be driven away. They march back to their homes, or to what is left of them because Gaza belongs to them.
Palestinian Nizar Noman, upon returning to his ruined home, rejected Trump’s plan outright: “As I belong to my homeland, my homeland belongs to me. I didn’t want to waste a moment away from my home again.” Trump and his allies believe they can dictate history, and that sheer force will be enough to erase an entire people. History repeatedly proved them wrong. In 1967, Israeli leaders created a strategy for depopulating Gaza. Of course, this was back in the time when 400,000 people used to live here. Now that number has spiked to over two million. Trump’s plan will fail, just as those before him have failed. Poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote, “The illusory facts on the ground [the occupier] is trying to create, thinking that time is on his side, will be mocked by that very same time.” The people of Gaza, standing amidst the ruins, marching back to their land, are living proof of that truth. Trump may repeat his demand—”Take the people. Take the people. Take the people.” But the people of Gaza have already answered: “We are not leaving.”
