Gaza’s Redevelopment: Technocracy and Settler-Colonialism

Image via Library of Congress, American Progress, 1873

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The Israeli military and Hamas in the Gaza Strip signed a ceasefire in early October last year, lending hope for a conclusion to a genocide spanning over two years. Following this, the Israeli military continued to occupy 60% of the Gaza Strip and violated terms on military attacks daily, citing failures to return hostages as justification for near constant bombardment. United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2803 outlined a more concrete vision for the future of Gaza via the Board of Peace, an organization composed of 20 member states and headed by the United States. The document affords the Board of Peace and its member states with control over Gaza’s government and economics; specifically calling for the implementation of a technocratic administration, and allows the use of military force for stabilization. The Gaza Executive Board was formed to oversee the demilitarization and redevelopment of Gaza, with its leadership composed of a variety of established Western politicians and private equity investors, and no representation of the Palestinian people. A ‘master plan’ for the future of Gaza was unveiled following the announcement of the Board of Peace, headed by Jared Kushner, real estate investor and son-in-law of President Donald Trump. This marks the beginning of ‘phase two’ in the context of the ceasefire, with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff emphasizing a need for reconstruction, ‘technocratic governance,’ and demilitarization. 

Israel reopened involvement in Gaza following the finding of the remains of the last Israeli hostage held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke following this, stating that the future for Gaza is demilitarization rather than development, and redirected focus to the disarmament of Hamas.

The contradiction of these two statements is not absolute, as they both represent acts in a broader pattern of settler-colonialism in the 21st century. While the dreamlike concept of redevelopment envisioned by Kushner may not become a reality, it births the image of a ‘new Gaza’ in the minds of the broader global consciousness. The land of Gaza has been erased almost totally, in the imminent plan for Gaza’s future the houses and olive trees, now rubble and ash, are succeeded by AI data centers and luxury real estate. The people who once lived alongside these trees and houses are similarly erased, whitewashed by glossy renderings of beachfront real estate. The purpose of these planned developments is not to suggest any actually achievable accomplishment, but rather to justify any Israeli or foreign interference in Gaza as necessary components of redevelopment. Destruction has occurred in Gaza across all levels, there is the individual annihilation of a family or community, but the broader cultural victory of Israel has aided the erasure of the Gazan people and culture. 

The image of Gaza is entirely sublimated by the manufactured peace of settler-colonialism: the deliberate obliteration of a people and their replacement by a foreign group. Past movements of settler-colonialism are correspondingly dependent on an artificial image representative of the future. The same sentiments of lebensraum employed in the expansion of Nazi Germany and of ‘manifest destiny’ in American westward expansion are expressed in this redevelopment plan for Gaza. There is a need for a projected future, an imagined perfection that can only be achieved by settler-colonialism, the new Gaza envisioned by the Board of Peace is this future: an astroturfed simulacra built atop thousands of deaths. These envisioned futures of Gaza do not suggest a peaceful time ahead for the Palestinian people; rather, they are replaced by faces of Western tourists gallivanting atop grounds bloodied by the death of thousands. Similarly, demilitarization only further exemplifies the inherent asymmetry of the Israel-Hamas conflict; by affording itself a monopoly on violence, the people of Gaza are privy to the full onslaught of Israeli military power. 

The future of Gaza is in the hands of Western politicians and private equity CEOs, with official U.S. statements emphasizing a need for technocracy and continued expansion of AI. The Palestinian people are entirely sidelined by vague goals of demilitarization alongside real estate development. The Gaza envisioned by Jared Kushner is not filled with the people of Rafah or Jabalia, but wealthy globetrotting elites. The means to remove Palestinian opposition are explicit; demilitarization closes off the capacity for armed resistance and redevelopment, showing no clear home for displaced Gazans. Here lies a shift in the central axes of power governing our world; the diplomacy of the U.N., while faltering in a growing world, is rendered meaningless when confronted with the realities of economic leverage. The Board of Peace is attempting to experiment politically in an entirely new way, with the coupled forces of various political and economic empires funding what is unequivocally settler colonialism in the 21st century. 

While claims of amnesty for former Hamas fighters suggest a more peaceful future for the region, the ongoing changes in global politics threaten institutions designed to afford a degree of liberty and protection to disadvantaged groups. The most threatening aspects of modern American policy are reflected in the Board of Peace’s plan for Gaza’s redevelopment: technocratic governance, artificial intelligence as economic basis, and oppressive foreign involvement. The Board of Peace is an attempt to shift control from the United Nations and place it in the hands of a few technocratic leaders teetering at the brink of fascism. In the same manner that U.N. involvement in the Korean Civil War established the proxy war as a language of the Cold War, the redevelopment of Gaza has potential to represent the future of foreign involvement in the Middle East. The Board of Peace represents a similar change, with it potentially acting as a rival to U.N., Gaza is its first entry into geopolitics, and the results of their redevelopment could signify massive changes in the coming years. Gaza has become a keystone in the future of the world as a whole, serving as a microcosm of the actions of these leaders. 

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This article was edited by Emmerson Oskay and Kailee Pierce.