A plan circulating in the White House to develop the āGaza Rivieraā as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an āinsaneā attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territoryās population.
Named the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust ā or GREAT ā the proposal was reportedly developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) with financial planning contributed by Boston Consulting Group.
Most controversially, the 38-page plan suggests what it calls ātemporary relocation of all of Gazaās more than 2 million populationā ā a proposal that would amount to ethnic cleansing, potentially a genocidal act.
Palestinians would be encouraged into āvoluntaryā departure to another country or into restricted, secure zones during reconstruction. Those who own land would be offered āa digital tokenā by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere. Those who stay would be housed in properties with a tiny footprint of 323 sq ft āminuscule even by the standards of many non-refugee camp homes in Gaza.
No no Guardian, donāt play their game. Ethnic cleansing was literally not a term until the 90s. The Clinton admin made it up out of nothing to justify why the US didnāt have to intervene in Rwanda, and everyone else went with it because it was convenient for them, because everyone else was trying to figure out how they didnāt have to intervene as well. āEthnic cleansingā is just genocide in a wrapper.
The term was first used by Serbs to describe the forced displacement of Albanians in Kosovo.
The Clinton administration has a lot to answer for, but not for coining that particular shitty term.