Jared Kushner unveiled a Trump administration-backed concept for rebuilding Gaza during the World Economic Forum in Davos, presenting glossy renderings of high-rises and coastal tourism. Critics and some Palestinian analysts say the plan sidesteps core political questions, including Palestinian self-determination and the risk that “voluntary migration” could become coerced displacement.
Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jared Kushner—President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a real estate investor who served as a senior adviser during Trump’s first term—presented a Trump administration-backed “master plan” for rebuilding the Gaza Strip.
Kushner’s presentation, delivered around a high-profile “Board of Peace” event in Davos, showcased computer-generated images and maps depicting what he cast as a revitalized “New Gaza,” including a dense skyline of beachside towers and a Mediterranean-facing “coastal tourism” corridor. Several news outlets describing the slideshow said the plan divides reconstruction into phases beginning in southern Gaza and moving north.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has said the plan had been under development for about two years, according to The Nation’s account of the rollout and other contemporaneous reporting on the Davos event.
The plan’s unveiling comes against a backdrop of widespread destruction in Gaza after more than two years of war that began following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and Israel’s subsequent military campaign. International agencies have reported that Gaza contains well over 60 million tons of rubble, underscoring the scale and timeline challenges for any reconstruction effort.
A central controversy is language used around population movement. The Nation and other critics argue that references to “voluntary migration” risk legitimizing displacement under duress if Gaza remains unlivable or tightly controlled. Kushner and allied presenters have framed the redevelopment push as a way to create jobs and economic opportunity, but detailed public documentation of how residents would be housed during rebuilding, who would control borders and access, or how governance would be structured has been limited in the materials described by multiple outlets.
The Nation’s analysis also contends that the plan implies Palestinians could be concentrated into tightly managed, “planned” residential areas while investment flows to newly cleared zones—an argument it links to long-running debates over surveillance, movement restrictions, and the political status of Gaza. Because these elements are presented largely as interpretation rather than direct quotations from Kushner’s slide deck or official U.S. documents, the extent to which any biometric monitoring or movement-control architecture is formally embedded in the plan remains unclear from publicly available reporting.
Critics cited by The Nation, including author Tariq Kenney-Shawa, argue that a reconstruction approach that postpones political rights while advancing large-scale redevelopment could accelerate displacement. The Nation also referenced a reported remark attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about “thinning out” Gaza’s population; that characterization has circulated in commentary and some reporting, but it is not consistently substantiated in the same terms across major outlets.
Separately, The Nation pointed to Palestinian-led reconstruction concepts such as the “Phoenix plan,” which it described as placing self-determination at the center of rebuilding—raising questions about control of borders, airspace, maritime access, and resources. Those governance issues remain at the heart of international diplomacy on Gaza and have been a frequent critique of development-first proposals.
Whether Kushner’s vision can attract sufficient financing, insurance coverage, and regional political backing also remains uncertain. Recent reporting has noted that reconstruction could require tens of billions of dollars and that implementation would hinge on security arrangements and governance decisions that have yet to be resolved.
On the ground, Gazan engineers, municipal workers and local institutions have continued emergency repairs where possible amid severe shortages and access constraints, as aid groups and residents confront a humanitarian crisis that has persisted even during intermittent lulls in fighting.
