U.S. President Donald Trump formally rolled out his Board of Peace today, saying the group, on which he serves as chairman, will work in partnership with the UN to address the Gaza crisis, with a plan to turn the decimated strip into a Trump-style luxury tourism hub.
“We’re committed to ensuring Gaza is demilitarised, properly governed and beautifully rebuilt. It’s going to be a great plan, and that’s where the Board of Peace really started. And I think we can spread out to other things as we succeed with Gaza,” Trump said as he hosted nearly two dozen world leaders on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum for a signing ceremony.
“It’s going to be a great thing to watch. And we can do other things. We can do numerous other things. Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do, and we’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations,” he added.
Representatives from multiple nations signed the organisation’s founding documents. Details on the board’s mandate, as well as its charter, were not immediately available.
Questions have long lingered about the scope of the board’s mandate, but Trump’s comments appear to confirm that it will be involved in global affairs far beyond Gaza as he continued to criticise what he said is the UN’s failure to use its “tremendous potential.”
“There is tremendous potential with the United Nations. And I think the combination of the Board of Peace with the kind of people we have up here, coupled with the United Nations, can be something very, very unique for the world,” he said.
Who’s on the Board of Peace?
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The Board of Peace is chaired by President Trump, who can hold that position until he resigns from it, according to a U.S. official.
According to the White House, the Board of Peace has an appointed “founding Executive Board” comprised of:
. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff
. President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner
. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair
. Billionaire financier Marc Rowan
. World Bank Group president Ajay Banga
. National security adviser Robert Gabriel
The White House says a separate group called the “Gaza Executive Board” will “help support effective governance and the delivery of best-in-class services that advance peace, stability, and prosperity for the people of Gaza.”
That group is comprised of:
. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff
. President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner
. Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan
. Ali Al-Thawadi, strategic affairs minister in Qatari prime minister’s office
. Egyptian intelligence chief General Hassan Rashad
. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair
. Billionaire financier Marc Rowan
. UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Al-Hashimy
. Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov
. Israeli businessman Yakir Gabay
. Sigrid Kaag, Dutch former deputy prime minister and ex-UN envoy
A total of 19 countries signed up to the charter at the Davos event in Switzerland including various Muslim countries including: Pakistan, Bahrain, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated Israel will join the Board of Peace, but he was not present at the signing ceremony in Davos. Notably, not a single Palestinian is present on the Board of Peace in any capacity.
Trump’s “bizarre” vision
Trump’s unveiled plans have been branded “bizarre” in some media platforms after pictures for a “new Gaza”, featuring a data centre, luxury apartments and “coastal tourism” where showcased at the event.
Trump’s son-in-law, Kushner, unveiled the images during a press conference at the signing event.
The images contained CGI-generated images of luxury apartments, data centres, coastal tourism, as well as plans to build more than 100,000 housing units and 75 medical facilities.
The new plans appeared to mirror a controversial AI-generated video of the war-torn strip transformed into a “Riviera” featuring Mr Trump and Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, released last year.
A slide reading “Master Plan” shows four phases of a transformation moving from Rafah through Khan Younis and into Gaza City. Colour-coded blocks are labelled “residential areas”, in yellow, and “coastal tourism” with 180 towers, labelled in bright pink.
Large sections of land are dedicated to “industrial complex data centres” and advanced manufacturing. The regions are cut up with green sections labelled “parks, agriculture and sports facilities.”
As well as the 100,000 permanent housing units and 75 medical facilities, the “New Rafah” is also expected to feature over 200 education centres and over 180 cultural, religious and vocational centres. The futuristic facilities show twisting white skyscrapers and large motorways.
“I’m a real estate person at heart, and it’s all about location, and I said, look at this location on the sea, look at this beautiful piece of property, what it could be for so many people. It’ll be so, so great. People that are living so poorly are going to be living so well. But it all began with the location,” Trump said.
This plan for Gaza comes after Israel’s devastating war on the Strip has left much of the infrastructure totally destroyed.
The Israeli army continues to control Gaza’s southern and eastern buffer zones, as well as large parts of northern Gaza, occupying more than 50% of the enclave.
Israel’s military campaign that began on Oct. 8, 2023, and lasted two years, has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians and wounded over 171,000 others, most of them women and children, and destroyed about 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
Bitter split with Europe
Many European counties, including key allies of the United States refused to sign up to the charter, mostly over concerns regarding Trump’s invitation for Russia to join rather than concerns for Gaza.
The UK, France and Germany all avoided signing up with several other European countries clarifying their reasons for not doing so at this stage.
Trump is currently in a feud with Europe over his planned takeover of Greenland amid a row over national security and territorial hold.
Russia said late on Wednesday it was studying the proposal after Mr Trump said it would join. Putin pledged to send $1 billon to the peace board, according to news agency TASS.
Trump has indicated that his Board of Peace is likely to expand its activities to deal with other crisis away from Gaza including the Ukraine war with Russia.
Speaking to press at Davos, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper clarified the UK’s position.
“We won’t be one of the signatories today, because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues, and we do also have concerns about [Russian] president Putin being part of something which is talking about peace,” Ms Cooper told BBC News.
