George Washington University has launched an investigation into threatening fliers targeting a professor over his plan to redevelop the Gaza Strip, a proposal shared last year with the Trump campaign.
A “notice of eviction” was taped last week to the office door of Joseph Pelzman, professor of economics and international affairs, calling him an “architect of genocide” and warning that unless he leaves, “every sector of this community will be mobilized against you,” as shown in photos posted on Instagram by GWU Students for Justice in Palestine.
A petition demanding his firing also appears on ActionNetwork.org.
At issue is Mr. Pelzman’s July 21 paper, “An Economic plan for Rebuilding Gaza: A BOT Approach,” which proposes bringing in investors to redevelop the region using the “buy — operate — transfer” model after a massive clean-up effort.
“It’s an academic paper,” Mr. Pelzman told The Washington Times. “There’s no genocide in it. It simply says, you want to fix this problem? There’s only one way to fix it. You start from scratch because the Hamas experiment was a failed experiment.”
University spokesperson Julie Garbitt said that “faculty members are entitled to academic freedom in their teaching and research, even when it is controversial.”
“The university condemns and takes very seriously any acts that deface university property or threaten any members of our community,” she said in a statement. “GW Facilities personnel have removed the flyers, and GWPD is leading an investigation into this incident and has been in contact directly with Professor Pelzman.”
The incident comes with 10 universities, including GWU, under review by the newly created Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism led by Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
“Should the individual perpetrators of this act be identified, we will take all appropriate steps in accordance with all applicable local laws and university policies,” Ms. Garbitt said. “These unacceptable activities undermine the meaningful and productive dialogue at GW.”
Mr. Pelzman said a colleague delivered the plan last year to the Trump campaign, but he doesn’t know whether anyone read it. He also said he has had no contact with the administration since then.
Still, it seems likely that the plan’s out-of-the-box approach served as an inspiration for Mr. Trump’s proposal to redevelop Gaza unveiled last month during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House.
Under Mr. Pelzman’s plan, countries would receive a 50-year equity share to develop the region, which would be governed by a civil administration charged with implementing a legal framework that includes property, contractual, criminal and tort rights under a market economy.
The redevelopment would focus on three sectors: agriculture, tourism and high technology. The rebuild would include a desalination plant to provide fresh water, a seaport, a power plant fueled by natural gas, a light-rail system, a hotel network along Gaza’s West side beaches and housing on the east side.
First, however, the entire area would have to be evacuated and excavated to remove the razed buildings, underground tunnels, land mines and military ordnance that have made Gaza “totally uninhabitable,” Mr. Pelzman said.
“No one can actually live on top of this pile of demolished buildings because Hamas has put mines everywhere,” he said. “I have relatives who are in the Israeli army, and one of them was in the northern part of Gaza. You can’t walk around there. It’s too dangerous because they’ve mined everything.”
That means the Palestinian population estimated at anywhere from 1.4 million to 2.1 million would have to be relocated during the excavation process. The paper doesn’t suggest where, but Mr. Pelzman said the residents would be invited back after the redevelopment and provided with housing ownership free of charge.
“The thing that SJP didn’t get is that my plan offers housing for free to all the Arabs, and it gives them clear title,” Mr. Pelzman said. “They didn’t bother reading it, because it’s like 50 equations and a model and all these things we’re trying to estimate. But I think it’s the only viable plan.”
The proposal also calls for replacing the educational system in Gaza, notorious for its anti-Jewish and anti-Christian content, with a world-class curriculum based on the Singapore International Baccalaureate model.
“The idea is that you have to de-Nazify the place,” Mr. Pelzman said. “My relatives told me is what they found in Gaza was copies of ‘Mein Kampf’ in Arabic. It’s like, really? Are you kidding me? They said, no. And every house had a tunnel filled with guns. It was a mess.”
Mr. Trump put his own spin on the proposal, saying that the United States would “take over” the region and lead the redevelopment, but his vision faces opposition from Arab states including Egypt, which plans to propose an alternative this week that will allow the Palestinians to remain in Gaza.
Mr. Pelzman called early reports of the Egyptian plan “insane,” saying that ensuring peace and prosperity in the decimated region will cost trillions, not billions, of dollars and take decades, not years.
“I mean, we did it after World War II with America and the Marshall Plan,” said Mr. Pelzman, who also serves as director of the Center of Excellence for the Economic Study of the Middle East and North Africa. “It’s doable.”
The paper was published last month in the Global Economy Journal.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.