The man with the plan: DC prof sent Trump study on Gaza relocation, development in July
GWU economics professor Joseph Pelzman wrote detailed proposal for Trump's team; says 'you have to destroy the whole place, restart from scratch'
Thank you Yasser Elsheshtawy, for shading the lights on this controversial proposal.. It would work great without the political agendas, yet can be a pilot analysis and solutions for many torn parts of the world; whereas civil, natural and military catastrophic events are spreading.. Certainly, politics ruin our civilization, yet can be a spearhead for future; as historically done; apart from the dumb-ones..!
US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s Palestinians and then redevelop the Gaza Strip has sent shockwaves worldwide. Rejected by the Arab world and much of the international community, it has been welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an idea that “could change history,” “worth listening carefully to,” and “the first original idea that has been raised in years.”
For one man in Washington, however, the proposal Trump unveiled when hosting Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday came as no shock: George Washington University Professor Joseph Pelzman.
An expert in economics and international relations and head of the university’s Center of Excellence for the Economic Study of the Middle East and North Africa (CEESMENA), Pelzman authored the plan and submitted it to Trump’s team as early as July 2024.
The details of Pelzman’s plan were first made public by Dr. Kobby Barda, an Israeli historian specializing in American politics and geo-strategy, during a discussion he held with Pelzman on the podcast “America, Baby!” in August 2024.
“I figured, well, why don’t I write sort of an out-of-the-box perspective on how to fix Gaza after the war is finished,” Pelzman told Barda. “The paper went to the Trump people because they were the ones who initially had an interest in it – not the Biden people. I was asked [by Trump’s team] to think outside the box on what do we do after [the war], as nobody was really talking about it.”
Pelzman’s paper, titled “An Economic Plan for Rebuilding Gaza: A BOT Approach,” has since been published in the Global World Journal. (He wrote it up in July, but it was put online in October.)
Professor Joshep Pelzman speaks about his Gaza redevelopment plan with podcaster Dr. Kobby Barda on 25 August 2024 (in English)
It presents a viewpoint whereby Gaza’s economy has reached absolute rock bottom. Pelzman cites World Bank data, which states that between 2007 and 2022, Gaza’s annual GDP growth averaged 0.4%, while per capita GDP declined by 2.5% per year due to high population growth.
Moreover, because of the war that erupted following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the destruction in Gaza has become so extensive that it is beyond repair or reconstruction, according to the professor. In fact, according to Pelzman, no private or international investment entity would enter Gaza as things stand. “You have to restart it from scratch,” he told Barda.
Pelzman presented additional data, already known to the public: As of 2022, Gaza’s unemployment rate stood at 45%, and 53% of the population lived below the poverty line, compared to about 13% of the Palestinians living in the West Bank. According to World Bank estimates from March 2024, cited by Pelzman, approximately 1.2 million people in Gaza were homeless and destitute “due to Hamas actions.” Additionally, 62% of the buildings still standing had sustained severe damage that rendered them uninhabitable and 90% of the main roads had been destroyed.
“You have to destroy the whole place, you have to restart from scratch,” Pelzman said on Barda’s podcast. “And then you have an economy which actually has three sectors: you have tourism potential, you have agriculture potential, and then you have – because a lot of them are smart – high-tech.”
He said his plan “started with a three-sector model of Gaza, but it requires that the place be completely emptied out. I mean, literally emptied out, dug up from scratch – and the concrete can be recycled.
“This is a triangular-sector model, but its implementation requires the area to be completely vacated so that the destroyed concrete can be recycled – ensuring that nothing remains of the vertical construction extending deep underground.”
The plan presented by Pelzman, who previously worked with USAID on economic developments in China, utilizes the BOT method – Build-Operate-Transfer – a model implemented in developing countries. According to this method, private sector companies and organizations enter into investment partnerships with governmental entities, receiving a property lease from the government for 50-100 years.
Under this system, a private entity constructs and operates the project for several decades, after which ownership is transferred to a public authority. During the operational period, the private entity is allowed to charge fees for the use of the infrastructure.
China-styled housing units
In his research paper, Pelzman characterizes his approach as treating Gaza “from a purely economic perspective,” which seeks “the investment solution to a failed experiment” – namely, the Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew from it in 2005.
Among other things, Pelzman’s plan would see a Gaza Strip powered entirely by solar energy, traversed by a light rail system and serviced by air- and sea-ports. The Strip will be independent of Israel for its energy needs.
Meanwhile, he writes, “there are no ex-ante restrictions on the mobility of local residents to exit Gaza.”
According to Pelzman’s plan, “the cost of this massive reconstruction of Gaza will range from $1 to $2 trillion and will take 5 to 10 years to complete.” His estimate is based on a model that analyzes a Gazan post-war economy driven by the agriculture, tourism and tech sectors.
Pelzman envisions restaurants, hotels and other luxury amenities on the Strip’s western, seafront side; and residential buildings – “[People’s Republic of China]-styled 30-floor housing units” on the eastern side. In between, he writes, will be agricultural areas and greenhouses. The reconstruction will require “the complete excavation of the terror tunnels,” though Pelzman says the IDF has already done much of the work.
Pelzman indicates repeatedly in his paper that his preferred mode for Gaza’s governance is e-government, meaning government that makes use of technological means. In particular, “the exchange of funds between residents and businesses will be exclusively via an online exchange network,” precluding the need for paper money, credit cards or foreign aid. The Strip will have no monetary authority and “all capital flows will be controlled by foreign stakeholders.”
Furthermore, Pelzman suggests that experts appointed by the foreign shareholders would oversee an educational system based on deradicalization, “with external oversight to assure the development of a skilled population.” Pelzman suggests importing curricula – from kindergarten to university – from the educational models of the UAE or Saudi Arabia, based on their recent reforms and Sunni-Sufi Islamic teachings.
Security must be assigned to “partners who share the common interest of removing Hamas and their co-conspirators from any role,” and are “interested in demilitarizing Gaza permanently.”
Per Pelzman, Hamas has no property rights in Gaza, under the 1993 Oslo Accords, which he says were left intact when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
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