Tilda Swinton has taken aim at Donald Trump’s plans to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” in an emotional speech at the Berlin Film Festival.
Last week, President Trump announced his controversial plan to “take over” the Gaza strip and transform it from a “hell hole” to the “Riviera of the Middle East” after saying he would “temporarily relocate Palestinians”.
Swinton, who accepted an honorary Golden Bear for career achievement at the film festival on Thursday, took an indirect jab at “greed-addicted governments” who want to “develop riviera property”.
The actress, 64, who has been going to the festival since she was 26, praised the event as a “borderless realm and with no policy of exclusion, persecution or deportation”.
The Michael Clayton star then described the “great independent state of cinema” as “innately inclusive - immune to efforts of occupation, colonization, takeover, ownership or the development of riviera property”.
Swinton continued: “The inhumane is being perpetrated on our watch. I’m here to name it without hesitation or doubt in my mind and to lend my unwavering solidarity to all those who recognize the unacceptable complacency of our greed-addicted governments who make nice with planet-wreckers and war criminals, wherever they come from.”
Trump, 78, sparked global outrage when he said he wants push roughly 1.8 million people to leave Gaza and claim it for the US, perhaps with American troops.
“I don’t think people should be going back,” Trump said during talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
“You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location. I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy.”
Trump also said the US would take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere and turn the territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East” in which the “world’s people”- including Palestinians - would live.
“We’ll make sure that it’s done world class,” Trump said. “It’ll be wonderful for the people - Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we’re talking about.”
He later told FOX News: "We'll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.
“In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.
“Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it and we’ll slowly - very slowly, we’re in no rush - develop it. We’re going to bring stability to the Middle East soon.”
Trump’s plans have been condemned by leaders in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
