Jared Kushner was blasted Tuesday for saying that Gaza's "waterfront property could be very valuable," while suggesting Israel transport Palestinian civilians out of the Gaza Strip and move them into the Negev desert while the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) "cleans up" the Hamas-controlled region.
Donald Trump's son-in-law's comments had been made during an interview at Harvard University.
“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner told Harvard’s Middle East Initiative faculty chair, Prof Tarek Masoud, in remarks first reported by The Guardian.
“I do think, right now, opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move,” Kushner said, adding that he hasn't spoken to the Israeli government about the potential plan.
“I’m sitting in Miami Beach right now,” Kushner said. “And I’m looking at the situation and I’m thinking: what would I do if I was there?”
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Kushner went on to say that the Biden administration should have done more to prevent the refugee crisis that developed after Israel launched its military operation against Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. He also lamented reports that Hamas has allegedly used aid funds to acquire more weaponry, as well as shoring up the massive tunnel networks that run under Gaza.
“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner said. “But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.”
Kushner, who served as a senior foreign policy adviser in Trump's administration, said that if he were in charge of Israel, he would make a greater effort to move civilians out of the southern city of Rafah, where Israel is expected to launch a ground operation.
“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 [into Gaza] and finish the job.”
“I do think right now opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move," he said.
“I am not sure there is much left of Gaza at this point," he said. "If you think about even the construct, Gaza was not really a historical precedent. It was the result of a war. You had tribes in different places and then Gaza became a thing. Egypt used to run it and then over time different governments came in.”
His comments were immediately criticized online.
"Never one to miss the opportunity to make a quick buck. Off someone's misery," wrote X user Jerrymberger.
And DonnaYoungDC wrote, "My god. Children are being slaughtered and thousands are starving to death but Jared Kushner's first thought is, hey, look at that valuable waterfront property just waiting to be exploited. What a scumbag."
