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Gaza's genocide, the Ben-Gurion canal, and the politics of reconstruction – erasure by design
September 17, 2025 | By Ranjan Solomon
Every plan, every scheme, every initiative put forward by Israel has meant in practice, the further dispossession has meant, in practice the further dispossession of the Palestinian people"
Erasure through water and basic infrastructure
Across Gaza, water systems, sewage plants, and desalination facilities have been repeatedly destroyed or rendered inoperable. Human Rights Watch has documented how Israel's actions left nearly all residents without safe drinking water, calling it a deliberate tactic with lethal consequences. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that children queue for hours for brackish water while sewage floods streets and disease spreads in overcrowded camps. What looks like collateral damage is in fact strategy: without clean water, sanitation, schools, and hospitals, a society cannot reproduce itself — and memory becomes harder to anchor in place.
The Ben-Gurion canal: a canal of dispossession
The Ben-Gurion canal is not an idle technical curiosity. First imagined in the 1960s as an Israeli alternative to the Suez, the project has been revived in recent years as planners and boosters tout "visionary" fixes to regional trade. Proposals suggest linking the Red Sea near Eilat to the Mediterranean, creating a new maritime corridor bypassing the Suez and cutting through the Negev and southern Levant.
On its face, the canal promises jobs, ports, and “revitalisation.” In practice, it exposes how reconstruction is being weaponised. Building a canal on this scale would demand vast land acquisition, demolition, and environmental upheaval. If routed alongside or through Gaza’s littoral — as some variants suggest — it becomes an explicit instrument for territorial re-engineering: carving out maritime access, dispossessing communities, and embedding a securitised corridor under Israeli or foreign control.
Who benefits – and who pays?
The Ben-Gurion project is attractive to investors: an alternate trade route that could siphon traffic from the Suez, reshape regional logistics, and open lucrative contracts. Analysts warn that such a canal would blunt Egyptian leverage over global shipping and give Israel and its allies new strategic advantage. But for Palestinians, it risks permanent exclusion from their coast and resources.
The ecological cost would also be immense: digging a mega-canal through arid landscapes and across coastal aquifers risks salinisation of groundwater, destruction of fragile ecosystems, and irreversible agricultural losses. These are not simply environmental side-effects; they are a form of erasure in themselves — obliterating place-based livelihoods and knowledge.
Reconstruction as cover for securitisation
Reconstruction rhetoric — "we will rebuild" — can be a double-edged sword. Masterplans issued in the name of revitalisation often serve as political cover for land grabs and economic integration on terms set by outside powers. The World Bank's damage assessments in Gaza acknowledge the need for heritage and infrastructure restoration but also reveal how external donors dictate frameworks without Palestinian sovereignty. A canal project would require permanent security infrastructure — ports, checkpoints, patrols, perhaps even naval bases. Who controls those? That answer determines not only trade but the very political geography of the region. Reconstruction becomes another layer of dispossession.
Please go to Middle East Monitor to continue reading.
This isn't a war. It's a large construction project on the cheap and all this pulverized concrete in Gaza will eventually form the reenforced banks of the Ben Gurion Canal:
Editor's note: Speculation about China's possible role in a proposed Ben Gurion Canal stems largely from Beijing's existing footprint in Israel's maritime infrastructure rather than from any confirmed construction plans. China's state-owned Shanghai International Port Group operates the Haifa Bay Port under a long-term concession, a fact that has prompted analysts to ask whether China could one day show interest in a Red Sea–to–Mediterranean canal that would bypass the Suez. While such a project could theoretically align with China's Belt and Road trade ambitions, there is currently no public contract, official announcement, or verified commitment indicating that China plans to finance or build the Ben Gurion Canal. At present, claims of Chinese involvement remain analytical or speculative, rooted in geopolitical logic rather than any documented agreements.
Gaza's genocide, the Ben-Gurion canal, and the politics of reconstruction – erasure by design
September 17, 2025 | By Ranjan Solomon
Every plan, every scheme, every initiative put forward by Israel has meant in practice, the further dispossession has meant, in practice the further dispossession of the Palestinian people"
The violence in Gaza is not simply episodic slaughter; it is an engineered campaign of erasure — of lives, livelihoods, memory, and geography. The Independent UN Commission of Inquiry concluded in June 2024 that the pattern of killing, denial of life-sustaining services, and the rhetoric of some Israeli officials meet the threshold of genocide. To understand what is being lost, we must follow not only the bombs but also the canals: how water, land, and sea are being weaponised, and how grand infrastructure fantasies — above all the idea of a Ben-Gurion canal — are being deployed to normalise dispossession.
Erasure through water and basic infrastructure
Across Gaza, water systems, sewage plants, and desalination facilities have been repeatedly destroyed or rendered inoperable. Human Rights Watch has documented how Israel's actions left nearly all residents without safe drinking water, calling it a deliberate tactic with lethal consequences. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that children queue for hours for brackish water while sewage floods streets and disease spreads in overcrowded camps. What looks like collateral damage is in fact strategy: without clean water, sanitation, schools, and hospitals, a society cannot reproduce itself — and memory becomes harder to anchor in place.
The Ben-Gurion canal: a canal of dispossession
The Ben-Gurion canal is not an idle technical curiosity. First imagined in the 1960s as an Israeli alternative to the Suez, the project has been revived in recent years as planners and boosters tout "visionary" fixes to regional trade. Proposals suggest linking the Red Sea near Eilat to the Mediterranean, creating a new maritime corridor bypassing the Suez and cutting through the Negev and southern Levant.
On its face, the canal promises jobs, ports, and “revitalisation.” In practice, it exposes how reconstruction is being weaponised. Building a canal on this scale would demand vast land acquisition, demolition, and environmental upheaval. If routed alongside or through Gaza’s littoral — as some variants suggest — it becomes an explicit instrument for territorial re-engineering: carving out maritime access, dispossessing communities, and embedding a securitised corridor under Israeli or foreign control.
Who benefits – and who pays?
The Ben-Gurion project is attractive to investors: an alternate trade route that could siphon traffic from the Suez, reshape regional logistics, and open lucrative contracts. Analysts warn that such a canal would blunt Egyptian leverage over global shipping and give Israel and its allies new strategic advantage. But for Palestinians, it risks permanent exclusion from their coast and resources.
The ecological cost would also be immense: digging a mega-canal through arid landscapes and across coastal aquifers risks salinisation of groundwater, destruction of fragile ecosystems, and irreversible agricultural losses. These are not simply environmental side-effects; they are a form of erasure in themselves — obliterating place-based livelihoods and knowledge.
Reconstruction as cover for securitisation
Reconstruction rhetoric — "we will rebuild" — can be a double-edged sword. Masterplans issued in the name of revitalisation often serve as political cover for land grabs and economic integration on terms set by outside powers. The World Bank's damage assessments in Gaza acknowledge the need for heritage and infrastructure restoration but also reveal how external donors dictate frameworks without Palestinian sovereignty. A canal project would require permanent security infrastructure — ports, checkpoints, patrols, perhaps even naval bases. Who controls those? That answer determines not only trade but the very political geography of the region. Reconstruction becomes another layer of dispossession.
Please go to Middle East Monitor to continue reading.
________
This isn't a war. It's a large construction project on the cheap and all this pulverized concrete in Gaza will eventually form the reenforced banks of the Ben Gurion Canal:
Editor's note: Speculation about China's possible role in a proposed Ben Gurion Canal stems largely from Beijing's existing footprint in Israel's maritime infrastructure rather than from any confirmed construction plans. China's state-owned Shanghai International Port Group operates the Haifa Bay Port under a long-term concession, a fact that has prompted analysts to ask whether China could one day show interest in a Red Sea–to–Mediterranean canal that would bypass the Suez. While such a project could theoretically align with China's Belt and Road trade ambitions, there is currently no public contract, official announcement, or verified commitment indicating that China plans to finance or build the Ben Gurion Canal. At present, claims of Chinese involvement remain analytical or speculative, rooted in geopolitical logic rather than any documented agreements.
Kushner and Witkoff were in Moscow likely negotiating energy and oil deals as part of concessions with Russia:
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