Former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has issued one of his strongest condemnations yet of Western-backed plans for Gaza’s future, describing proposals linked to Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” as a grotesque attempt to rebuild the territory “on the bodies of Palestinians.”
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview on The Katie Halper Show, Corbyn said plans circulating among Western elites for a luxury “Riviera” development in Gaza amounted to moral obscenity, given the scale of destruction and loss of life inflicted during Israel’s assault on the enclave.
“The bodies of Palestinians are in the rubble and under the ground of where they want this Riviera to be built,” Corbyn said. “This is macabre and disgusting beyond belief on a global scale.”
‘A Rogues’ Gallery Carving Up Gaza’
Corbyn dismissed Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” outright, calling it illegitimate and colonial in nature. He stressed that Palestinians themselves are entirely excluded from the process.
“The Board of Peace should simply not exist,” he said. “It is a ludicrous concept. Palestinians are not even represented on it. It’s a rogues’ gallery put together to carve up what remains of Gaza.”
According to Corbyn, discussions are already underway among international actors about luxury tower blocks, beachfront resorts and commercial developments—despite Gaza being home to more than two million people, most of whom have been displaced, injured or bereaved.
“This has been largely destroyed by Israel, with bombs supplied by the United States, supported by Britain and France,” he said. “The only agenda should be the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and massive resources going in so Palestinians can decide their own future.”
The ‘Riviera Plan’ and Forced Displacement
Corbyn warned that the redevelopment vision being promoted by Trump and his allies is inseparable from the forced displacement of Palestinians—an objective he said has long underpinned Israeli policy in Gaza.
He argued that the destruction of entire residential blocks in Gaza City appeared deliberately designed to “make way” for future redevelopment.
“It would be impossible to rebuild Gaza with the Palestinian people there in the way Donald Trump wants,” Corbyn said. “What we’re likely to see is an attempt at forced removal—people pushed out of parts of Gaza, followed by redevelopment and the introduction of settlers or international elites.”
He added that Israel’s long-standing plan to push Palestinians into Egypt via the Rafah crossing had been blocked only by Cairo’s refusal to participate.
Tony Blair: ‘Keep Well Out of It’
Corbyn reserved particular scorn for the reported involvement of Tony Blair, calling him emblematic of the political and moral failures behind the project.
Blair, who became wealthy after leaving office and now runs a global advisory and finance operation, has repeatedly positioned himself as a Middle East “fixer” since the Iraq War.
“I’ve no record of anything useful he ever did as Middle East envoy,” Corbyn said. “If he and his group think they can play a role in rebuilding Gaza, the best role they can play is to keep well out of it. They should be nowhere near it.”
Corbyn traced Blair’s political legacy back to the transformation of the Labour Party into a pro-market, interventionist force, linking domestic privatization policies to foreign wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“He was up to his neck in the horror show of the Iraq war,” Corbyn said, recalling how Blair pushed Britain into conflict on the false claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction—despite mass public opposition.
‘A Genocide, Recognised by the World Court’
Corbyn described Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide, citing death tolls that he said had surpassed 70,000 and referencing findings by the International Court of Justice.
“That’s not just me saying this,” he said. “That’s the International Court of Justice as well.”
He condemned what he described as a vision of wealthy international investors being encouraged to pour money into a luxury enclave “literally built on the bodies of Palestinians.”
“Anyone who takes part in this Trump peace committee needs to hang their head in shame,” he said. “The Palestinian people—and they alone—should decide the future of Gaza.”
Starmer: ‘A Political Chameleon’
Turning to Britain’s current prime minister Keir Starmer, Corbyn portrayed his former colleague as an opportunist who abandoned progressive principles and enabled British complicity in Gaza’s destruction.
He accused Starmer of campaigning for Labour leadership on Corbyn-era policies—only to dismantle them once in power—and of marginalizing pro-Palestinian voices within the party.
Starmer, Corbyn said, used his authority to suspend him from Labour, block his return to the parliamentary party, and ultimately attempt to remove him as an MP—prompting Corbyn to run successfully as an independent.
“If you’re not prepared to let local people decide who represents them,” Corbyn said, “then I’m not prepared to accept that.”
‘Oppose It Absolutely’
Corbyn closed with a call for global resistance to any plan that treats Gaza as a real-estate opportunity rather than a shattered homeland.
“This Riviera fantasy,” he said, “is the very opposite of justice, sustainability and peace. We have to oppose it—absolutely and without compromise.”
