Jared Kushner, who served as senior White House Advisor during the presidential tenure of his father-in-law Donald Trump, earlier this month made a comment on Gaza’s waterfront property, which did not go down well with some quarters.
What Happened: “Gaza's waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner said in an interview with Harvard Middle East Initiative Faculty Chair Professor Tarek Masoud that was aired on March 7.
“All the money that’s gone into this tunnel Network and into all the ammunition if that would have gone into education or innovation what could have been done,” he said referring to the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas militant outfit.
Kushner, who runs the private equity firm Affinity Partners, expressed interest in developing the property. “I think from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up but I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterward,” he said.
During the conversation, Kushner also said Israel should resettle civilians in the Negev region. “I think Israel’s gone way more out of their way than a lot of other countries would to try to protect civilians from casualties but I do think right now opening up the Negev creating a security there moving the civilians out and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move.”
Reacting to Kushner’s comments, Dylan Williams, Vice President for Government Affairs, at the Center for International Policy, criticized him for calling for ethnic cleansing in Gaza. “Just days after the @ADL's @JGreenblattADL gave him an award for "his record of policy work," Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner openly advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza,” he said in a post on X.
Why It’s Important: During Trump’s tenure, Kushner was vested with the role of senior policy adviser and was entrusted with the task of preparing a peace plan for the Middle East. The Abraham Accords he negotiated at that time helped normalize relations between various Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, with Israel.
Incidentally, the Anti-Defamation League earlier this month gave Kushner an award for his “vital and deeply impactful work” on the Abraham Accords.
Kushner recently clinched a property development deal in Serbia, which his father-in-law eyed previously, both before his presidential tenure and during his presidency.
The iShares MSCI Israel ETF EIS, which tracks a broad-based index composed of Israeli equities, ended Tuesday’s session up 0.77% at $62.60, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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