Tony Blair\u2019s thinktank worked with a project developing a postwar Gaza plan that included the creation of a \u201cTrump Riviera\u201d and a manufacturing zone named after Elon Musk.<\/p>\n
The project, led by Israeli business people and using financial models developed by the US consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), was developed against the backdrop of Donald Trump\u2019s vision of taking over the Palestinian territory and transforming it into a resort.<\/p>\n
While the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) said it was not involved in the authorship of the plan, two staff took part in calls as the project evolved.<\/p>\n
The staff also took part in a message group used for the project, along with figures from BCG and the Israeli business people, while a TBI document titled \u201cGaza Economic Blueprint\u201d was shared within it, the Financial Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n The report prompted an angry reaction from the institute, which Blair set up after he left Downing Street. It has more than 900 staff in more than 45 countries.<\/p>\n The former UK prime minister has been involved in the region and worked for nearly eight years as special representative of the Quartet of international powers seeking a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. He resigned in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n The institute denied it was involved in the preparation of a slide deck, which the FT reported had been developed by the Israeli business people using BCG\u2019s financial models and was said to have proposed paying half a million Palestinians to leave the area.<\/p>\n The slides reportedly outlined a plan called the \u201cGreat Trust\u201d and was shared with the Trump administration<\/a>. It envisaged that private investors would have been attracted to Gaza once many of the inhabitants had been paid to leave.<\/p>\n The plan outlined in the slides was reported to have been created to attract Trump\u2019s attention and that of wealthy Gulf rulers. Among 10 \u201cmega projects\u201d, the document includes the \u201cMBS Ring\u201d and \u201cMBZ Central\u201d highways \u2013 named after the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates \u2013 and an \u201cElon Musk smart manufacturing zone\u201d.<\/p>\n