WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has been linked to a project widely condemned for proposing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, involving a sweeping postwar redevelopment of the besieged Strip.
Plans include a “Trump Riviera” and infrastructure named after wealthy Persian Gulf monarchs, according to documents reviewed by the Financial Times (FT).
The vision, outlined in a slide deck titled The Great Trust, was created by a group of Israeli businessmen with support from consultants at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
BCG’s plan assumed that at least 25 percent of Palestinians would leave “voluntarily”, with most never returning. It remains unclear whether Palestinians would have any choice in the matter, but the proposal has been widely condemned as ethnic cleansing of the territory’s indigenous population.
The project aimed to transform the enclave which has been reduced to rubble by the Zionist regime into a lucrative investment hub. Central to the proposal were blockchain-based trade schemes, special economic zones with low taxes, and artificial islands modelled on Dubai’s coastline.
Although TBI insists it neither endorsed nor authored the slide, two of its staff members participated in discussions related to the initiative.
The Tony Blair Institute was founded by the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2016 to allegedly promote global policy reform and combat extremism.
One internal TBI document — titled Gaza Economic Blueprint— circulated within the project group, outlined ambitious economic and infrastructural proposals.
These included a deep-water port linking Gaza to the India-Middle East-Europe corridor and visions for artificial islands off the coast.
Significantly, unlike the Israeli businessmen’s proposal, the TBI document did not suggest relocating Palestinians — a notion backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and condemned internationally as a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
While some ideas overlapped, the Blair Institute maintains it played no role in drafting or approving the BCG-backed presentation.
Initially, TBI denied any involvement, with a spokesperson telling the FT: “Your story is categorically wrong... TBI was not involved in the preparation of the deck.” However, after the FT presented evidence of a 12-person message group that included TBI staff, BCG consultants, and Israeli organizers, the institute acknowledged its staff had been aware of and present during related discussions. “We have never said TBI knew nothing about what this group was working on,” the spokesperson clarified.
TBI claims it was in a “listening mode” and that its internal paper was one of many analyses of postwar scenarios being explored.
The group behind the proposal includes high-profile Israeli tech investors such as Liran Tancman and venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg. Both reportedly played a role in setting up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
GHF’s credibility has been marred by controversy. The chaotic rollout of the program has seen at least 700 Palestinians killed and more than 4,000 wounded by Zionist troops while trying to access aid.