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Columbia, South Carolina: Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser charged with coming up with a Middle East peace plan, has praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s waterfront real estate, suggesting that Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the area.
“Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner said in an interview dated February 15, posted earlier this month on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative, a program of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and reported first on Wednesday (AEDT) by The Guardian.
A Palestinian man walks on the beach by destroyed buildings in Gaza City during the November ceasefire.Credit: AP
“If you think about all the money that’s gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?
“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner added. “But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.”
Responding on X to “those dishonestly using selected parts” of his remarks to criticise him, Kushner posted a video of the entire interaction, saying he stood by his comments and believed “the Palestinian people’s lives will improve ONLY when the international community and their citizenry start demanding accountability from their leadership”.
About 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly October 7 attack. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 70,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s war on Hamas began.
From left, then-president Donald Trump, his White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in 2017.Credit: Israeli Government Press Office
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a prospective Rafah operation with Biden administration officials.
The agreement to hold such talks came as President Joe Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown between the allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel’s conduct during the war. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the talks in the coming days were expected to involve military, intelligence and humanitarian experts.