JERUSALEM: Some Israeli far-right leaders held a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss redeveloping the Gaza Strip 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 the Gaza Strip, 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.

The 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.

Participants in Tuesday’s Knesset meeting discussed a “master plan” drafted by Weiss’s organisation to re-establish a permanent Jewish presence in Gaza.

The detailed plan foresees the construction of housing for 1.2 million new Jewish residents, and the development of industrial and agricultural zones, as well as tourism complexes on the coast.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2025