President Donald Trump convened the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace on February 19, pledging $10 billion in US funding toward Gaza reconstruction while representatives from more than 40 countries gathered at the US Institute of Peace — a building that now bears Trump’s name.
Member states announced a combined $7 billion in additional pledges, with Saudi Arabia committing $1 billion over several years. Trump, who chairs the board, described the US contribution as modest “compared to the cost of war” and said the body would eventually oversee UN operations.
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The announcement drew immediate scrutiny. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — a real estate developer with no official government title — leads the Gaza Executive Board that controls how reconstruction proceeds, while private equity executives with direct financial interests in the territory sit alongside him. Trump said that he will be made an “envoy of peace.”
Critics argue the structure creates a pipeline in which US taxpayer funds flow into a redevelopment framework designed and overseen by Trump’s family and financial allies, with no independent oversight mechanism or competitive bidding process disclosed to the public.
Kushner’s ‘New Gaza’ Plan
In January, Kushner unveiled a sweeping master plan at the World Economic Forum in Davos, envisioning luxury high-rises, coastal tourism zones, data centers, and a new airport.
“There is no Plan B,” he told assembled world leaders, presenting AI-generated renderings of glass towers along the Mediterranean. The plan targets a Gaza GDP of $10 billion by 2035 and promises 100% employment — up from a near-collapsed economy of $362 million in 2024.
No Palestinians were consulted in its development. The proposal does not address land deed transfers or how displaced families would be rehoused during construction, and no Palestinian representative sits on the Board of Peace.
Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management and a member of the Gaza Executive Board, told Thursday’s meeting the territory holds “at least $50 billion” in coastal value and “$115 billion of value” waiting to be “unlocked and financed” — reinforcing concerns among critics that the reconstruction framework is more of a land grab than it is a peace plan.
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