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How Trumps Gaza plans could strip Palestinians of their property rights · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: This is Gaza's future, at least how the Trump-led Board
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  Speaker 1: of Peace has touted it. New housing, hospitals, schools, and
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  Speaker 1: a promise of amazing investment opportunities for the private sector.
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  Speaker 2: Gaza, not as it was, but as it should be.
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  Speaker 3: Here to help the people of Gaza, to lift them up,
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  Speaker 3: and give them every opportunity to succeed.
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  Speaker 1: On the ground, the picture's very different. Negotiations have stalled,
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  Speaker 1: the reconstruction of Gaza appears far off, and the board's
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  Speaker 1: leader warns that the agreed ceasefire may collapse. The board's
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  Speaker 1: plans seem to be moving forward, plans that many Palestinians
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  Speaker 1: see as a thinly disguised land grab.
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  Speaker 4: We have begun to feel that they want to take Gaza,
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  Speaker 4: turn it into a Riviera and send us somewhere else,
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  Speaker 4: as if we do not have a land of our own.
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  Speaker 4: That is unacceptable.
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  Speaker 3: My concern is the Board of Peace's preference is actually
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  Speaker 3: for Palestinians to emigrate.
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  Speaker 1: We asked the Board of Peace multiple times to comment
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  Speaker 1: on its plans and criticism that it might enable further
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  Speaker 1: mass displacement of Palestinians, but received.
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  Speaker 5: No answer so far.
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  Speaker 1: So what is the board doing? And what does it
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  Speaker 1: mean for the people on the ground? The Board of
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  Speaker 1: Peace has been able to position itself as the only
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  Speaker 1: game in town for the future reconstruction of Gaza. In
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  Speaker 1: November 2025, the United Nations authorized it to oversee the process.
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  Speaker 1: But despite big announcements, the board remains rather opaque about
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  Speaker 1: its vision. Gaza is not even mentioned in its charter.
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  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, that charter was only written
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  Speaker 1: after it was endorsed by the United Nations. UN legal
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  Speaker 1: experts have since called on the board to stop speculating
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  Speaker 1: about Gaza as a real estate paradise and respect the
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  Speaker 1: Palestinian people's right to self-determination. And the question remains whether
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  Speaker 1: there can be any legal basis for its vision of
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  Speaker 1: a rebuilt Gaza. Behind this mock-up of Gaza's coast, there's
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  Speaker 1: an actual place inhabited by Palestinians with long-standing laws and
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  Speaker 1: public administration. Much of the land is privately owned. DW
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  Speaker 1: talked to the residents there and they told us they've
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  Speaker 1: heard about the board's grandiose plans in the news.
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  Speaker 4: We heard about Trump's plan and it was circulated in
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  Speaker 4: the media. They even released images that made it look appealing.
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  Speaker 4: But personally, I do not accept Gaza becoming entirely like that.
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  Speaker 4: If they offered me money, I would not accept it
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  Speaker 4: because this is my property and my grandparents' property.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want money. I don't want anything.
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  Speaker 5: This is mine.
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  Speaker 2: If I plant it with greens, that's better for me.
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  Speaker 1: While the Board of Peace has presented the vision for
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  Speaker 1: a reconstructed new Gaza, no plan has been published on
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  Speaker 1: how to implement it. But different leaked documents allow us
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  Speaker 1: to piece together some information. They differ in parts but
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  Speaker 1: share a common premise, that Palestinians must be relocated and
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  Speaker 1: that access to their property rights needs to be obtained
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  Speaker 1: for reconstruction to move forward. One of the plans, the
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  Speaker 1: Great Trust Plan, the most explicit on how to achieve this.
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  Speaker 1: It circulated within the US government and was published by
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  Speaker 1: the Washington Post in September 2025. The plan envisions that
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  Speaker 1: Palestinian landowners would either be given a financial stimulus to
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  Speaker 1: emigrate abroad and leave the Gaza Strip entirely or exchange
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  Speaker 1: their property rights for a digital token they could then
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  Speaker 1: redeem for an apartment in an AI-powered smart city sometime
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  Speaker 1: in the future. Yet critics say it's not that simple.
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  Speaker 1: According to the UN, about 80% of all buildings in
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  Speaker 1: Gaza have been damaged or destroyed in the war. That
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  Speaker 1: means establishing what belongs to whom in order to compensate
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  Speaker 1: them is going to be a challenging task, if not impossible.
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  Speaker 5: We are talking about the entire, even archive, the archive
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  Speaker 5: system has been destroyed really by Israel. So even like
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  Speaker 5: reclaiming or claiming property rights and even generally rights, that
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  Speaker 5: would be really hard to kind of obtain. Not to
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  Speaker 5: mention that there are families who have no member left
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  Speaker 5: after Israeli bombardment. And so whose property would that be?
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  Speaker 1: The board's roadmap for peace transition in Gaza states clearly
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  Speaker 1: that no one will be forced to leave the Strip.
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  Speaker 1: It calls this the principle of non-displacement. But about 60%
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  Speaker 1: of the Gaza Strip is fully controlled by the Israeli military.
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  Speaker 1: The entire population of those areas has been displaced and
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  Speaker 1: continues to rely on limited aid with the constant threat
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  Speaker 1: of renewed conflict. In February, the UN raised concerns that
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  Speaker 1: Israel's conduct toward Palestinians in recent years might amount to
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  Speaker 1: ethnic cleansing. Israel denies these allegations, but legal experts doubt
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  Speaker 1: if any arrangement where a large part of the Gazan
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  Speaker 1: population is convinced to leave could be considered voluntary.
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  Speaker 5: If a landowner is pressured, displaced, denied the realistic option
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  Speaker 5: to refuse, or otherwise depraved from a really meaningful choice,
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  Speaker 5: then the transaction could fundamentally raise different other questions that
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  Speaker 5: could include forcible transfer if it comes from an authoritative power,
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  Speaker 5: illegal confiscation, coercion, which are all forbidden under international law.
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  Speaker 3: It's incredibly rational to say, look, I want to save
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  Speaker 3: my family. I'll give you my property rights. Give me
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  Speaker 3: a chance to continue living elsewhere. That is not choice.
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  Speaker 1: Admittedly, the scenarios described in the Great Trust Plan are
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  Speaker 1: hypothetical at this point. Israeli attacks in Gaza have continued
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  Speaker 1: despite the agreed ceasefire, and the board has failed to
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  Speaker 1: broker the diplomatic breakthrough needed to begin the reconstruction. But
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  Speaker 1: this might not stop one of the other leaked plans
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  Speaker 1: from being realized. The Board of Peace is said to
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  Speaker 1: be planning the construction of a temporary compound near Rafah
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  Speaker 1: in the part of Gaza under full Israeli control to
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  Speaker 1: relocate tens of thousands of Palestinians. Residents would be vetted
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  Speaker 1: and need to agree to having their biometric data taken
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  Speaker 1: before receiving shelter. Reportedly, the Board intends to proceed with
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  Speaker 1: the project, regardless of the status of broader negotiations. The
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  Speaker 1: plan calls for the compound to be built on public land,
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  Speaker 1: but it acknowledges that mechanisms would have to be put
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  Speaker 1: in place to identify private property owners who might require compensation.
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  Speaker 2: The rubble of Gaza is not a blank check for
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  Speaker 2: real estate developments. You can't just change privately owned Palestinian land.
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  Speaker 2: It can't simply be expropriated for reconstruction because international humanitarian law,
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  Speaker 2: the body of law which governs occupation, gives definitely significant
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  Speaker 2: protection to private property in occupied territory.
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  Speaker 1: The board's planned Rafah compound echoes official Israeli plans. Last year,
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  Speaker 1: Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, ordered the construction of what
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  Speaker 1: he called humanitarian transit zones over the remnants of Rafah.
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  Speaker 1: Israel also approved the establishment of a directorate to enable
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  Speaker 1: Palestinians to voluntarily leave for a third country.
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  Speaker 3: You have to actually prevent what's going on because it'll
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  Speaker 3: become a fait accompli. In December 2027, the UN Security
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  Speaker 3: Council mandate for this Board of Peace will expire. So
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  Speaker 3: Israel has every incentive to try to do as much
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  Speaker 3: as it can in terms of moving the Palestinian population
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  Speaker 3: out of Gaza as they can before that sort of
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  Speaker 3: legal umbrella is lifted off of the Board of Peace.
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  Speaker 1: For Palestinians like Ayman Shamalak, uncertainty is prevalent. But even
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  Speaker 1: amid the destruction, he knows exactly where his home is.
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  Speaker 1: He points to his family's property title as a reminder
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  Speaker 1: of what he sees as a basic right to remain
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  Speaker 1: on his land unless he chooses otherwise.
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  Speaker 4: This is from the Ottoman Empire. This property has belonged
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  Speaker 4: to my family since then. It passed from my grandfather
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  Speaker 4: to my father and then to me. This title deed
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  Speaker 4: could remain unattended for a hundred years and no one
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  Speaker 4: could take it away from me. No one can take
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  Speaker 4: it from me except by my own will. The same
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  Speaker 4: applies to everyone else, of course. That is international law.