Jared Kushner says Israel should move Palestinians out of Gaza 'waterfront property' to desert | The Independent
Category: News & Politics
Via: evilone • 9 months ago • 41 commentsBy: Alisha Rahaman Sarkar (The Independent)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Donald Trump's son-in-law and former Middle East adviser says Israel should 'clean up' parts of Gaza Strip that 'could be very valuable'
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar Wednesday 20 March 2024 10:21
Donald Trump's son-in-law and former foreign policy adviser Jared Kushner sparked a backlash by claiming that Israel should "clean up" Gaza and move Palestinians to the Israeli Negev desert.
"Gaza's waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods," Mr Kushner, who is a former property dealer married to Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka, said in an interview last month at Harvard University.
"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," Mr Kushner told Harvard professor Tarek Masoud.
The interview was posted on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative, a programme of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Mr Kushner was appointed as a senior foreign policy adviser to Mr Trump when his father-in-law served as the 45th US president. He was tasked with preparing a peace plan for the Middle East which reportedly involved striking normalisation deals with Gulf nations.
Mr Kushner made the statement at the height of Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza, which has forced about 1.5 million Palestinians to flee from the north of the Strip to the southern town of Rafah.
Palestinians line up for free food in Rafah, Gaza Strip
More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, 40 per cent of them children, and 70,000 have sustained injuries in Israel's incessant retaliatory bombing of the Strip. Israel declared war on Hamas following the militant group's 7 October attack in southern Israel where at least 1,200 civilians were killed and 253 abducted as hostages.
Mr Kushner suggested Israel should move Palestinians from Gaza to the southern Israeli desert of Negev. The businessman said if he were in charge of Israel, he would prioritise getting civilians out of Rafah and get them into Egypt "with diplomacy".
"But in addition to that, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there," he said. "I think that's a better option, so you can go in and finish the job."
Mr Kushner's interview on 15 February was briefly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters who raised banners calling him a "nepo-genocider".
"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," Mr Kushner said.
"But I don't think that Israel has stated that they don't want the people to move back there afterwards."
"I think Israel's gone way more out of their way than a lot of other countries would, to try to protect civilians from casualties," he added.
While Mr Kushner's Harvard interview took place last month, it was only widely reported in the media this week, prompting a backlash online, with people accusing him of advocating for "ethnic cleansing".
"Donald Trump's son-in-law proposed ethnically cleansing Palestinians out of Gaza, saying Israel should clean up' the strip," wrote journalist Ben Norton. "He then salivated over the 'very valuable' potential of Gaza's 'waterfront property'," Norton added.
Political commentator Ron Filipkowski quipped on X that the "best thing about protesting Biden by not voting for him in 2024 is that Jared gets to build condos in Kushnerstan in 2025, formerly known as Gaza".
"Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner openly advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza: Saying Israel should bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and deport 2.2 million Palestinians there… ," added Palestinian foreign policy analyst and professor Rula Jebreal.
Mr Kushner on Tuesday responded to "those dishonestly using selected parts" of his remarks.
He shared a video of the entire interaction, saying he stood by his comments "and believe the Palestinian people's lives will improve ONLY when the international community and their citizenry start demanding accountability from their leadership".
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of officials to Washington to discuss a prospective Rafah ground operation with the Joe Biden administration, following a phone call between both leaders.
Mr Trump, who will lock horns with Mr Biden in this year's presidential elections, claimed that Jewish people who vote for Democrats "hate Israel" and hate "their religion".
The Republican leader in Florida claimed that "the Democrats have been very, very opposed to Jewish people", drawing instant backlash from the White House.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said the comments were "vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric" without mentioning Mr Trump by name.
Mr Biden's campaign said: "The only person who should be ashamed here is Donald Trump."
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So Kushner is advocating to displace a whole group of people to an unhabitable spot, steal their land and make money off it. Sounds like the asshole we all know him to be.
gee, I wonder where jared and his skank wife and kids will be moving when daddy in law gets his clock cleaned.
Gee. Who else moved people from their homes to a inhospitable area?
republicans...
close....
[deleted,] it was democrats, whether you are talking about the trail of tears, or importing of slaves from Africa, or the Japanese internment camps, these were all democrats and their fucked up racism, and no amount of revisionist history will change that.
Roosevelt split from the Republican Party as his ideals were very similar to today's conservative populists. No revisions necessary. The internment camps are the very proof of it.
[removed]
Your trope is tiring, untrue, and shows that you know nothing of history or don't care.
I wish one could throw a flag on a shitty comment like yours
[deleted]
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Yes, that it all happened under democrats even into the 20th century, no revisionist history allowed. The party of the Klan is constantly blaming others for their actions.
I agree!
As the person in charge of U.S. foreign policy, he has much too much power over U.S. policy-- and to much power over U.S. actions!
(IMO he should be impeached!!!)
ha. ha. ha. He has little power now, but his father-in-law is running for the Presidency again and I have no doubt frat boy here will once again ride the coat tails into a new position of power if the opportunity arises.
Brilliant plan, he can now have his ''slum lord'' empire stretch to the ME and at the same time do some ethnic cleansing.
But certainly not an original thought. I don't have to tell you the history of foreigners pushing people from their lands for financial gain. The dumbass just sees dollar signs without thinking of the ramifications. How long before he follows his father to a felony charge?
That's because the dumbass has no moral center
Thomas Aquinus said of greed -
The punishment for greed is to be boiled in the most expensive and luxurious oil for eternity.
At the rate he's going probably fairly soon.
Not if Congress is able to impeach him-- and remove him from office.
(In that case he would just be another powerless politician spouting off).
Since Jared isn't running for president it's going to be damn difficult for Congress to impeach him.
Kushner would like to send the gazans into the Israeli desert so that Gaza can be cleaned up and made commercially attractive for investment. He admits that it is possible that once they are in the desert they will not be allowed back into Gaza.
I listened to a good part of kushner's interview which was done at Harvard in February and to be fair to him he does sound pretty knowledgeable about the history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
The problem is that his solution is for America and Israel to deal with the wealthy Arab countries and have them decide what will happen to the Palestinians, which would be in line with something like sending a couple million of them into the desert for who knows how long.
So he should be smart enough to realize this idea is a civil rights crime.
... not in this country.
And not in Israel.
I think Netanyahu has a copy of Mein Kempf but scratched out "Jew" and replaced it with "Palestinian"
What makes you think the Israelis would want them?
When the Jews regained rulership over their ancient homeland-- 2/3rds of the country was desert. Inhospitable rocky desert.
The Israelis started kibbutzim in areas that couldn't support life. But their amazing innovations lead to them making orchards and other food producing areas grow there.
(Israelis were the first to develop their unique system of Drip Irrigation-- which has literally made the Negev bloom-- and is used throughout the world.)
Reminiscent of the Nazi death camps. Kill as many as possible, ship the rest away to die. Israel can cry enough about the Holocaust, then they "do unto others". Validate your damned religion now!
I didn't know that Jared was an Israeli.
He does profess the faith . Remember that plexotomy ?
I don't know, we aren't close.
Who could forget.
Kushner, supposedly under consideration to be Trumps Secretary of State, is advocating ethnic cleansing
Ethnic Cleansing - Wikipedia
Kushner, supposedly under consideration to be Trumps Secretary of State, is advocating ethnic cleansing.
So who cares what President Trump would like to do?
Ain't never gonna happen.
Why?
because as soon as Trump's current term as President is over, he will just be a very lame duck ...with no more power.
(It won't be long now!)
Dammit ! Pay attention !
Kushner says that he only wants good things for the Palestinians, that their lives should be better. But at this point in time they are not ready to govern themselves. The point in time when they will be ready to govern themselves is somewhere in the misty distance. That is convenient for someone like Kushner.
From his Harvard talk it also comes out that he is a pretty strong admirer of Netanyahu.
Birds of a feather .
They have certainly picked great leaders in the past and the current.
The pathetic part of this whole thing is that if it were anybody else, this would be promoted as the thing to do.
Beachfront property ? Who the hell would want to vacation in a war zone ? The ME will be in turmoil forever . Let a group of Americans , the one's that say they can't afford to live, yet can vacation in a shit hole like the ME, go there , get taken hostage and we'll send in U.S. forces to save their dumb asses. What a plan !
The same folks who would want to vacation in North Korea according to Jared's father-in-law.
So true !