Gaza was once a thriving touristy, culture hub

Donald Trump’s plan to turn Gaza into a tourist destination is nothing new. In the nineties, Palestinians began to attract visitors to Gaza by opening an airport in the south and building dozens of hotels. Finance came from Gazan businessmen and foreign aid donors who sought to build Gaza’s economy to make it independent from Israel which still controlled land, sea, and air access and subjected Gaza to “de-development.”

Gaza’s international airport was formally inaugurated on December 14th, 1998, by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and US President Bill Clinton who that evening addressed a gathering at the Rashad Shawwa Centre in Gaza City before hurrying to Bethlehem to attend the lighting of the city’s Christmas tree. I flew into Gaza and attended all these events which were seen as turning points for Gaza.

At that time Palestine Airways operated flights between Gaza and Larnaca in Cyprus and, Amman in Jordan, Dubai and other destinations. The airport ceased operations in 2000 following the eruption of the Second Intifada and was subsequently bombed by Israel.

Hotels mushroomed along the seafront and inside the Strip. Until then Marna House, founded in 1946, had been the sole Western-style hotel in Gaza. Its garden was a popular venue for Gazans seeking a quiet place to sip tea and mint-laced lemonade and smoke shisha. The most luxurious new hotel was the handsome Moroccan-style Deira while Al-Mathaf was attached to a small museum housing artifacts collected by contractor Jawdat Khoudairi who found them in construction sites.

The museum not only attracted foreign visitors but hosted busloads of schoolchildren learning about Gaza’s millennial history. Gaza had at least eight major cultural heritage sites, including a palace where French emperor Napoleon stayed, the 12th century Saint Porphyrius church, the 4th century Saint Hilarion Monastery, and 13th century Grand Omari Mosque.

In December 2023, Israeli bombers destroyed the Shawwa Centre and adjacent library and have since targeted other cultural sites with the aim of erasing Gaza’s heritage as well as its people. More than 70 per cent of 2.3 million Gazans are refugees; the rest are Gazans to whom Gaza’s land, sea and heritage belong. Driven from their homes in Palestine’s coastal cities during Israel’s 1948 war, Gazan refugees are as unwilling as native Gazans to be ethnically cleansed a second time.

Gazans have flatly rejected the plan put forward by ignorant and crass Trump who called for Israel to hand over Gaza to US ownership when the war is over so he could deport its population and turn the strip into a Mediterranean resort peopled and frequented by non-Gazans.

Gazans, he said, could be settled in “far safer and more beautiful communities” in the region, naming Egypt and Jordan. Both have flatly rejected displaced Gazans and argue that pressure to make them accept would violate their 1979 and 1994 peace treaties with Israel. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told Middle East Eye Amman will close its border and could even go to war to prevent Israel from opening the border to expel Gazans into the kingdom.

The most sensible solution for Palestinian refugees in Gaza — but not native Gazans — would be for them to return to Haifa, Jaffa, and Askelon from which they were expelled by Israel. In 2018-2019, refugees in Gaza mounted demonstrations dubbed “The Great March of Return” along the strip’s border with Israel. Israel fended them off with violence.

Return would amount to implementation of paragraph 11 of UN General Assembly resolution 194 which called for refugees to be allowed to go home at the earliest “practicable date” and be compensated for their losses whether they choose to return or not. Trump and his partner Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would never contemplate even limited return as this would form a precedent for the repatriation of Palestinians who were expelled in 1948 to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Trump has undermined his ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza by dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID) which has a budget of $40 billion a year and carries out humanitarian and development projects in scores of countries. Ten thousand USAID workers were suspended and programmes providing medicine and clean water to poor communities here halted. With a stroke of a pen, Trump has deprived himself of leverage over Amman and Cairo. USAID provides Jordan with $770 million and Egypt with $65-85 million in economic aid annually. Egypt could, however, continue to receive $1.2 million in yearly military funding as this is tied to its peace treaty with Israel.

Trump has also reduced his leverage with Netanyahu by imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court due to warrants issued in November for the arrest of Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Instead, Trump has granted Netanyahu freedom to transfer to the occupied West Bank his Gaza strategy of total devastation. The Israeli army has already invaded the city and refugee camp of Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus, and Tubas, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians. At least 26,000 Palestinians have been expelled from their homes.

Scores of checkpoints prevent Palestinians from reaching hospitals — which are surrounded by Israeli troops — jobs, and schools. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) reported the healthcare system has been in “a state of perpetual emergency” since October 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry has said 884 Palestinians have been killed by soldiers and settlers since then.

It is historically significant that Israel calls the West Bank operation “Iron Wall” as this was the title of an essay written by Russian Zionist ideologue Vladimir Jabotinsky in 1923. He was among the first to say that Jews had to use military force to achieve their goals in Palestine. He said the Arabs/Palestinians would never agree to Jewish majority in Palestine and had to be kept in check behind an Iron Wall which they “cannot breach.” Jabotinsky’s “Revisionist Movement” became the godfather of Netanyahu’s Likud. This term is personally significant for Netanyahu as his father Benzion Netanyahu was assistant to Jabotinsky’s secretary and favoured the transfer of Palestinians out of Palestine. Binyamin Netanyahu grew up in his shadow and has followed Jabotinsky’s recommended modus operandi by cultivating Israel’s alliance with the US, the global hyperpower currently headed by his ally Donald Trump.