This was to be a meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza and a possible ceasefire, as well as to debate a future two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz was in Brussels this Monday to meet his counterparts from the European Union and address the thorny subject of the post-war between the Jewish state and Hamas.
If this meeting was not the scene of major diplomatic advances, it was above all the presentation of two videos from the head of Israeli diplomacy which made an impression. The first concerned a railway line project to connect Israel to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The other, more controversial, concerned a project for an artificial island off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
Very far from the agenda, said the head of diplomacy of the European Union Josep Borrell, who did not hide his annoyance in front of the press: “Israel Katz came to present projects which have nothing to do with see with the peace talks. […] The (Israeli) minister could have made better use of his time and been concerned about the security of his country and the high number of deaths in Gaza.”
An island partially controlled by Israel
This artificial island project off the coast of Gaza is nothing new, but in fact dates back several decades. A few years ago, however, the idea was developed in a much more serious and concrete way by certain Israeli officials. In particular by the Minister of Transport at the time… the same Israel Katz, today the head of Israeli diplomacy.
As reported by Times of Israel in 2017, Israel Katz presented a new concrete project for this island. This then counted on a platform with an area of 534 hectares, at a cost of around 5 billion dollars. The objective: to install infrastructure intended to provide Gaza with essential services that are currently lacking in the enclave. On this island, connected to the Palestinian enclave by a bridge, drinking water desalination facilities and a power plant, a goods port and a container storage area… and even a possible airport, would have been built. eventually.
Israel Katz then presented this project as a solution to meet the economic needs of the Palestinian enclave, while preserving Israel’s security. As the American press agency explained Reuters in 2017, Israel then planned to retain control of security in the sea around the islet and reserved the right to carry out inspections in the port, while an international military force would be responsible for security on the platform and at checkpoints on the bridge linking it to Gaza.
But this proposal remained at the draft stage. In Israel, he notably encountered firm opposition from the Israeli Minister of Defense at the time Avigdor Lieberman, also responsible for policy in Gaza, who refused to allow the enclave to be the subject of any development policy as long as Hamas was in charge of the Palestinian territory. Among the latter, this project was also received with great suspicion. As the pan-Arab media reminds us The New Arabit had been clearly rejected by the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, calling it “pure fantasy”, particularly concerning the control retained by Israel and an indefinite international coalition.
No plan to relocate Palestinians, says Israel
Almost seven years later, this subject was put back on the discussion table by Israel Katz in Brussels, in a context that was obviously much more tense in the region. The video broadcast, probably the same as during the presentation of the project in 2017, also surprised the EU representatives: according to the New York TimesEuropean officials explained that it had been broadcast in Brussels without really any context to detail the contribution and relevance of this project in the context of discussions on the future of Gaza and relations between Israel and Palestine.
It did not take much time for some to see in the reminiscence of this project a desire by the Israeli government to expel the inhabitants of Gaza in order to relocate them outside the enclave. An idea dear to the most radical fringe of the executive of the Jewish state: at the beginning of 2024, two far-right ministers from the coalition in power in the Jewish state, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, had created controversy by repeating their calls to “encourage voluntary emigration” of Gazans and their support for “settlement construction” in Gaza. A document from the Israeli Intelligence Ministry was also published in the Israeli press last October, revealing a concrete plan to transfer the population of Gaza to Egypt, in Sinai.
Is this artificial island project intended to accommodate Gazans driven from the enclave? Not at all, replies Israel. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Jewish state clarified to the media Times of Israel that Minister Katz had “never declared” that the objective of this island was to temporarily welcome residents of Gaza, and “that such a plan did not exist”. Always in the New York Times, European officials explained that “the project did not explicitly mention relocating Palestinians to the island.” An Israeli official accompanying the foreign minister, however, was quoted as saying that the island could “include housing for Palestinians,” adding that “the goal was to increase the number of available homes, not to abandon the reconstruction of Gaza after the war or to displace Gaza residents in the long term.