Gaza Experiment: From Genocide to Disaster Capitalism

This essay appeared in the Jan. 22, 2026 edition of UNFTR’s premium newsletter. Become a UNFTR member to receive our bonus newsletter each week and for other perks.

Nearly two years ago, we published a News Beat episode examining how Israel has been using Gaza—and its population—as a “laboratory” to test new weapons and surveillance systems so they could later sell them to other governments across the world.

Another chapter in the experiment that is Gaza was announced Thursday morning—at Davos of all places, which has attracted a record number of plutocrats and AI oligarchs to this year’s gathering.

Standing on a stage with a “Board of Peace” backdrop looming over him was Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and erstwhile disaster capitalist.

With Trump seated about 20 feet to his left, Kushner unveiled the administration’s “master plan” for Gaza, one of the most shocking and grotesque “reconstruction” projects in modern history.

That the colonization of Gaza was revealed publicly amid pomp and circumstance shouldn’t have been so viscerally jaw-dropping when you consider that the preceding event enabling this neoliberal takeover to happen was—and still is—a live-streamed genocide. Not any genocide, but one in which those prosecuting it—Israel’s fanatical right-wing government—were callously outspoken about their objective.

Officially, more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed during Israel’s war of annihilation, the majority of whom are women and children. And despite the Trump administration and much of the corporate media boasting about the so-called “ceasefire” agreement—allowing the latter to effectively turn away from the Palestinian plight—nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed since the deal’s implementation last October.

Underscoring the scale of the non-stop violence directed at Palestinians, at least 11 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, one day before Kushner’s ballyhooed announcement, including two teenage boys, three journalists, and a woman.

At Davos on Thursday, Kushner effectively declared “mission accomplished” in Gaza, with the complete destruction of the population and the strip’s infrastructure enabling capital’s complete takeover of the land.

“Without security, nobody is going to make investments,” he told the audience. “We need investments in order to start giving jobs.”

According to Kushner, those involved, a group that includes real estate magnate and United States Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, spent significant time thinking about “what’s next“ in Gaza. While the starved, cold, punished, and largely displaced population simply wants basic necessities so they can rebuild their lives, pick up the pieces of their hearts and support children suffering from unimaginable psychological trauma, Kushner and the boys were thinking: “How do we change the habits, how do we change the behaviors?”

He characterized the mission to transform war-ravaged Gaza as “very entrepreneurial,” openly embracing the neoliberal vision of disaster capitalism in a way that would even make its forefather, Milton Friedman, blush.

Without mentioning that the United States has been providing Israel with nearly $4 billion in military aid for years, Kushner said the economic support the international community has historically provided Gaza “doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope.”

“And so we want to use free market economy principles,” he continued. “A lot of what President Trump spoke about that he’s doing in America, we want to bring the same mindset, the same approach, to a place like Gaza, to give these people the ability to thrive and have a good life.”

As with any colonial project, “We do not have a Plan B,” Kushner declared. “We have a plan, we signed an agreement, we’re all committed to making that agreement work.” (Translation: It’s our land now, Gazans.)

The plan, which will be foisted upon the population, calls for the “demilitarization” of Hamas and that takeover (what the disaster capitalists refer to as “reconstruction”) will occur in phases, beginning with the building of “New Rafah” and then “New Gaza.” As for the former, Kushner said that phase can be completed in “two, three years,” noting that the removal of rubble and demolition is already underway. As for the United States of Gaza, he promised it will be a “destination” with “a lot of industry” where people will enjoy “great employment.”

“Just calm down for 30 days,” Kushner told the administration’s detractors, before adding, falsely, “The war’s over.”

Perhaps most shocking and potentially underreported was his rebranding of disaster capitalism as “peace implementation,” something he seemingly hopes to use as a model for future American conquests.

“As we’re creating this system, hopefully it’s something that we can just document these learnings to make them available to all else who want to use them in the future,” Kushner said.

Just like that, Kushner gave away the ballgame. “Peace” is a commodity—something tangible that the vultures can salivate over.

For Palestinians—and any other subjugated population—their land is a tool for experimentation, be it weapons, surveillance systems or “peace implementation.” And this, according to Kushner, is their reward after two-plus years of genocidal slaughter: Oligarchs celebrating in new flats built upon the ashes of bombed-out homes and mutilated children, their blood money becoming yet another digit in a bank account.

As they say, all’s fair in love, war, and peace implementation.

Image Source

• Ashraf Amra, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.