Palestinian UN Ambassador on Trump's radical Gaza plan and the Israel-Hamas ceasefire

February 15, 2025

A Palestinian stands amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza, with a mural of a tree on a damaged wall behind her. The text art reads, "GZERO World with Ian Bremmer—the podcast."

Listen: On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour to discuss the future of Gaza, Trump’s radical proposal, and what Palestinians want. As a fragile ceasefire holds, Trump has suggested that the US take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” while relocating displaced Gazans elsewhere. The idea has been widely rejected by America’s Middle Eastern allies, but does it signal a new phase in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

For Mansour, the issue is about more than just geopolitics—it’s about identity, history, and the right to return. He rejects the idea of mass displacement, pointing to the thousands of Palestinians who have already marched back to their destroyed neighborhoods. “We have very, very strong attachment to the land, whether it is you have a palace on it or whether it is destroyed,” he says. He also warns that Trump’s plan reflects a long-standing effort to erase Palestinian identity, arguing, “The Zionist movement has been working all along to push the idea that Palestine is a land without a people.

Mansour asks whether Gaza's future will be shaped by the people who live there or by the world's most powerful people.

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