A "Gaza Riviera" Network State?

There has been a lot of talk recently about how Gaza will be rebuilt. But there is no real discussion of rebuilding Gaza without first acknowledging the scale of its devastation, and the ongoing human rights crimes as literally millions of people starve and and hundreds more civilians are gunned down every day.

The contrast between this reality and the "Gaza Riveria" proposals that we have seen floating around and the ridiculous [AI generated video ](https://youtu.be/PslOp883rfI?feature=sharedshared by Trump and others is striking. The ai videos of this situation were just gross in the context of the horrors it ignores if not celebrates.

But there is more to this story, as details have emerged that the Tony Blairs Institute has been working on a similar ideas with a lot more details than another awful AI generated video.

Let's remember that for over 75 years, Palestinians have endured military occupation, forced displacement, economic siege, dehumanization and structural apartheid. This situation has been the motivation for countless horrific attacks and hostage situation and will continue until there is basic decency and human rights for everyone.

But the recent bombardments have deepened this crisis beyond reckoning. The basic infrastructure of day to day life in this region have been erased by bombs. Hundreds of thousands are dead. Water, power, medicine, and basic human dignity have been stripped from them.

So when the Tony Blair Institute is tied to a leaked project which included blockchain goverance and related Network State ideas for a "Riviera" project a luxury smart city rebuilt atop the ashes we must ask: who is this for?

The glossy renders tell one story: innovation, prosperity, rebirth. But the geopolitical reality tells another: displacement cloaked in redevelopment, surveillance infrastructure masquerading as empowerment.

An Inflection Point, or Another Occupation?

Hopefully soon the bombardment and starving of Gaza will end and efforts at rebuilding will begin. This moment could be a genuine turning point. International attention is on Gaza. Billions in aid and investment may soon flow. If ever there were a time to center Palestinian self-determination, it is now. But history warns us: money and tech alone do not create justice. They often deepen extraction.

What Palestinians need is not a Riviera. They need dignity, safety, and control.

True reconstruction cannot be outsourced to Blair-era technocrats or Silicon Valley sandbox enthusiasts. It must be built by and for the people of Gaza, with systems that serve them first. Not crypto enclaves for the wealthy. Not Orb powered biometric ID systems in the name of "security." Not tokenized "incentives" to relocate and forget.

The Network State Trap

Among libertarian and cypherpunk circles, the rise of "network states" an is often framed as a radical alternative to broken institutions. Creating a blockchain enabled alternative doesn't automagically make it ethical or viable.

Gaza's reality forces a harder look: what happens when those societies are built atop occupied land, absent consent, by those with capital but not accountability?

Parallell societies already exist in Gaza and they are decentralized networks of human beings providing mutal aid and assistance to each other and others from the outside who try to support them. These people could use better tools for sure, once the bombing and obstruction of access to food stops. But if those interested in cypherpunk ideas wanted to focus on making truly liberatory infrastructure for a parallel society in Gaza (and honestly everywhere else) it would not be a gated technopolis. Some ideas of the tech that could actually be helpful would be:

• Uncensorable and decentralized hosting and storage
• A mesh network for communication coordinated by local collectives
• A decentralized governance tool for managing reconstruction funds and beyond
• A privacy-first ID system owned by individuals, not authorities
• A democratized public goods funding pool for shared resources and infrastructure

As governments push more surveillance and authoritarian violence community driven alternatives to existing communications and coordination infrastructure could in fact be very foundation. But a blockchain enabled occupation of land is not libertarian abundance,it's enclosure.

From Surveillance Capitalism to Self-Sovereign Recovery

We’ve seen this kind of story before time and time again throughout history, disasters of all kinds are often exploited by wealthy elites to concentrate their power. Gaza cannot become the next testbed for surveillance capitalism, draped in humanitarian branding.It is already being used to test millitary and surveillance technology.

If we are to fund recovery, let it be toward restoring rights, not extracting data. If we are to design technology, let it be in service of privacy, not profit. And if we are to build systems, let them reflect the dreams of those who live there—not the portfolios of those who do not.

Human Rights Are Non-Negotiable

Whether Gaza becomes part of a future Palestinian state, remains under Israeli control, or operates as an autonomous enclave, one principle must guide all efforts: respect for human rights, first and always.

This means:

• Ending collective punishment and forced displacement
• Protecting freedom of movement, expression, and assembly
• Prioritizing trauma-informed rebuilding, with Palestinian leadership
• Holding all parties—governments, developers, technocrats—accountable to international law

Peace does not come from golden statues and glitzy projects. It comes from treating people with decency, dignity, and agency. That is the only path toward justice and peace.

A Call to Cypherpunks, Builders, and Skeptics Alike

If you believe in the need for parallel societies, advocate for ones that free not ones that cage. If you care about abundance, measure it in community wealth and resilience, not just investor returns. And if you are sick of paying taxes that fund ICE or bomb children, then put your energy into systems that offer actual alternatives. Those that support the idea of projects like this one un-conditionally may in fact do more to harm this movement than to help it progress.

Gaza needs much more than a mirage. It will need recovery on its own terms. Let's not lock in old colonial patterns with new cryptographic tools. Let's supporting building things different. That is what is needed in Gaza and everywhere around the world.