Trump’s “freedom zone” is nothing more than a violent, colonial land grab

Donald Trump’s latest act of lunacy was, last week, to suggest that the killing fields of Gaza should be turned into a “freedom zone”, adding that, “I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it.” He later claimed he’d take care of the Palestinian people, which will likely mean violent suppression and forced expulsion. He and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their administrations are determined to turn Gaza into anything other than the homeland of the Palestinian people.  The fact that this flagrant act of self-serving barbarism is a war crime that disregards the aspirations of the Palestinian people is of no consequence to these lawless powers.

Prior to his latest announcement, Trump was babbling about turning Gaza into the Riveria of the Middle East. In cahoots with Netanyahu, the brazenly corrupt mogul said that Gaza is, “an incredible piece of important real estate and I think it’s something that we would be involved in.” And involved he is – up to his eyeballs.

Leaving aside those pesky considerations like international humanitarian law, UN conventions and the usual injunctions that forbid forcible takeovers of foreign lands, what does Trump’s real estate grab tell us? Obviously, it speaks volumes about the man himself: his values, worldview and moral priorities. It also says a lot, too, about his vacuous aesthetics, or lack of them. You’ll recall those glitzy marketing images depicting Trump’s reconstructed Gaza (minus the Gazans) as a cross between downtown LA and Luna Park? All brilliant lights, busy thoroughfares, casinos, cafes and bars along the reimagined Israeli-constructed Strip, at the centre of which is a huge gold statue of the man himself.

We shouldn’t be surprised at such gawdy manifestations of lawless opulence and bad taste. Peer into the Donald’s Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment in Lower Manhattan and you’ll shudder at the overly ornate, pseudo renaissance chic, with gold, plate glass, steel and oversized soft furnishings blended into an over-the-top melange of extravagance that reeks of regal-like privilege.

Flaunting wealth of course has always been part of Trump’s preferred public persona. He has taken his own conspicuous consumption to extraordinary lengths, plastering his brand name on buildings, planes and the God Bless the USA bible. Being a rapacious salesman, he’s tries to sell anything and everything, from trainers, key rings, colognes, and perfumes, to bitcoins and university degrees. He is profiting hugely from his presidency, as are his kids and billionaire mates, many of whom, like corrupt Roman senators, sit at the heart of government.

Predictably, nowhere in Trump’s self-serving Riveria/freedom zone solution is there any acknowledgement of the rights of the Palestinian people to their land, or recognition of the fact that they have been under violent occupation for half a century or more. This kind of erasure is the stuff of violent colonial power. It applies to Israel, a country built on the ruins of Palestinian homes and villages.

The US, along with European and other powers who have enabled the destruction of Gaza, is itself no stranger to dispossessing and cruelling of subject peoples. Its history is soaked in the blood of traditional owners and slaves.  Prior to 1776 no such country as America existed. It was a land of numerous tribal nations with their own languages, customs and worldviews.  Each territory was a place of origin, sustained by ancestral knowledge and creation stories woven into the fabric of everyday life. The notion of private property had no meaning in this context, nor did the ludicrous idea that ‘man’ could exercise dominion over nature. Trump’s Gaza solutions are oblivious to all this. He has zero understanding of why ancestral connections, and connection to land and place matter. For him and his acolytes, land is reduced to its market value.

As Palestinians attempt to hold on to their ruined homes and scorched landscapes, you might ask, why bother? Well, there’s the pragmatic consideration that there’s nowhere else to go, and that this is their land, their identity, their place of emotional and spiritual connection and historical continuity. This perhaps, is the vilest aspect of Trump’s equation of land as real estate. It is yet another horrific example of conquest capitalism that has led to the ruination of large parts of the world. Living with the land, in harmony with nature, is about as remote from Trump’s simple, worldview as one can imagine.

The struggle for Palestinian liberation is about the attainment of their human rights, humanity and dignity and the rolling back of settler colonial ideologies that have caused so much harm to so many lands and people.  The genocide in Gaza is one more egregious iteration of colonial violence that never really disappeared. As Chris Hedges notes, the world has re-entered the dark ages: a time where violent colonial, autocratic rule is once again being expressed through the wholesale oppression of subject populations. And this is why the Netanyahu-Trump, ethnonationalist annexation and genocide needs to be resisted.

Dr Richard Hil is adjunct professor in the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University, Gold Coast; adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law, Business and Arts at Southern Cross University. He is an author, academic and activist. He is the author  of numerous books, notably co-authoring “The Sacking Of Fallujah. A People’s History” by Ross Caputi, Richard Hil and Donna Mulhearn.