CNN
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US President Donald Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account late on Tuesday, which appears to have been created with generative AI, promoting the transformation of Gaza into a Gulf state-like resort featuring a golden statue of himself, a hummus-eating Elon Musk, and shirtless American and Israeli leaders lounging on a beach.
“No more tunnels, no more fear,” a voice sings over a dance beat. “Trump Gaza is finally here!”
The American president has proposed expelling 2.1 million Palestinians from Gaza and transforming the enclave into a “Riviera” that would be owned by the United States.
The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has called that proposal a “serious violation of international law.” The PA foreign minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shaheen, said earlier this month: “We have tried displacement before, and it will not happen again,” referring to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during the Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation of Israel in 1948.
The video opens on barefoot Palestinian children walking through Gazan rubble. “What’s next?” a title card asks. They walk towards a skyline of skyscrapers lining Gaza’s coast.
“Donald’s coming to set you free,” a voice sings. “Trump Gaza shining bright. Golden future, a brand-new light. Feast and dance. The deed is done.”
The video, incongruously, features bearded and bikini-clad belly dancers, a child holding a golden balloon in the shape of Trump’s head, and Elon Musk dancing on a beach under a shower of US dollars.
As the Truth Social video ends, the camera pushes in on Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sipping drinks on a beach.
CNN has asked the White House for clarification.
In a statement, Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office denounced the video as “disgraceful.”
“This video and its degrading content reflect the deeply rooted racist colonial mindset that seeks to distort reality and justify the occupation’s crimes,” said director-general Ismail Al-Thawabtah. “By portraying Gaza as if it were a land without a people, this desperate attempt aims to legitimize the ongoing ethnic cleansing carried out by the Israeli occupation with clear American support.”
It is unclear whether Trump intends to carry through on his expulsion plan. After receiving forceful pushback from Egyptian and Jordanian leaders, Trump told Fox News on Friday: “The way to do it is my plan. I think that’s the plan that really works. But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it.”
Reacting to the video on Wednesday, Wassel Abu Yousuf, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s executive committee, told CNN that the video was “a clowning gimmick and nothing more than that.”
“There will not be resorts or Middle East riviera or anything else,” he said. “What Trump wants to do should be done somewhere else, but not on the backs of the Palestinian people. This is the land of our ancestors and parents, and a lot of blood has been shed to defend it.”
A CNN poll conducted by telephone and online in mid-February found that the proposal for Gaza with no right of return for Palestinians was the least popular Trump action or proposal asked about. Only 13% of Americans in the poll called it a “good thing,” while 58% described it as a “bad thing.”
Arab leaders met in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Friday for the first time to formulate a response to Trump’s plan for Gaza. The leaders are set to meet in Cairo on March 4 to discuss the plan and will likely present it to Trump at a later date.
A senior United Arab Emirates official said Wednesday that there needs to be a “bold” plan to reconstruct the territory, but said any plan cannot take place without a clear path to a Palestinian state.
The UAE has conducted preliminary discussions about the possibility of playing a role in postwar efforts to rebuild Gaza, but has said that its conditions, including a reformed Palestinian Authority and an Israeli commitment to Palestinian statehood, have not yet been met.
Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the prospects of an independent Palestinian state and has endorsed Trump’s Gaza ownership plan.
“The conclusion is we need a bold plan of reconstruction but that plan of reconstruction must ensure that we don’t go back to a situation of conflict and to do that we have to have a clear path where the Palestinians actually have a state,” the UAE’s diplomatic adviser to the president Anwar Gargash told CNN’s Becky Anderson at an investment conference in Abu Dhabi.
Egypt, one of the countries Trump suggested should take in Gazans, has led the Arab effort to formulate an alternative plan for the enclave, which its prime minister has claimed would take three years to complete and cost $20 billion.
Asked by CNN whether Egypt, as a major recipient of US aid, feels coerced by Trump to accept his plan, Hassan El Khatib, the Egyptian minister of investment, said: “The right for the Palestinians to live on their own land is a principle… No we’re not going to take pressure on this.”
CNN’s Kareem Khadder contributed to this report.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the timing of Trump’s post.
