newsSun City revisited as Israelis and Americans plan to turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East
The front-cover of The Observer on Sunday 21 September 2025, the day Britain finally recognised Palestine as a sovereign state. But the big question is this one –What is there left to recognise?
Forty years ago, fifty singers, dancers and actors refused to perform at Sol Kerzner’s luxury Sun City hotel in Bophuthatswana in the North West Province of South Africa. They put morals before money, saying the contrast between the wealth of a handful or mega-rich people who they were expected to entertain and the stark poverty of ordinary people in South Africa living under apartheid was too much to bear. Might a new generation of artists do the same if they are offered large sums of money to amuse the rich and help turn war-ravaged Gaza into what Donald Trump likes to call the Riviera of the Middle East?
by TREVOR GRUNDY
Bezalei Smotrich isn’t one to mince his words. In Tel Aviv he told supporters that Gaza could prove to be a real estate bonanza.
He told politicians and real estate magnates that he was talking to Americans about a plan to parcel up Gaza and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East.
He shared an AI-generated video showing Gaza as a Dubai-style city featuring exotic beaches, skyscrapers, luxury yachts and people parting as if there’s no tomorrow.
For millions of Palestinians there’s no today, yet alone tomorrow.
Smotrich, a religious fanatic, was reported by Sky News as telling the urban regeneration event “There’s a business plan set up by the most professional people there is and is on Donald Trump’s table and how this turns into a real estate bonanza. I’m not kidding. It pays off.”
He said – “We’ve done the demolition phase, which is always the first phase of urban renewal. Now we need to build: it’s much cheaper.”
Demolition job in Gaza – done and dusted
As he spoke, tens of thousands of frightened men, women and children were heading south with whatever they could carry. Over 65,000 people in Gaza have been killed or starved to death after the Hamas terror attack on Israel in October 2023.
Smotrich made no mention of a report published last week from a UN commission which said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza – a claim that Israel denies.
But the dreams and the rhetoric continue.
Right now, it is impossible to believe that Gaza could one day be a major Mediterranean tourist attraction.
It would be like Dante re-writing the 9th Circle of Hell and turning torture chambers into glitzy night clubs.
Paul Simon – He made his own contribution to the fight against apartheid
In 1985, Steven van Zandt created the music-industry activist group Artists United Against Apartheid.
It was the iron curtain that stopped so many big name artists for playing Sun City and included Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Pete Townsends.
The song “Sun City” went viral but only about half of American radio stations played it because some of the lyrics mocked Ronald Reagan who wanted “ constructive engagement “with South Africa.
Paul Simon and Linda Ronstadt declined to contribute and Simon went on to record his maganificent “ Graceland” in South Africa.
Simon and a South African band sang twice in Harare in 1987.
Sun City opened in 1979 and reports claim that Frank Sinatra was paid anything between $1.5 million and $2 million for a single show. That was 19 years after Sharpeville where 69 Africans were shot dead by South African policemen.
Five years after the release of “Sun City” and the cry by artists around the world not to play Sun City Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
Sol and a City built in a bantustan not recognised by anyone but high-spending tourists
Very few young South Africans would today know the name “Sol Kerzner.”
He stepped down as CEO of Kerzner International in 2008 and died in 2020.
Now that South Africa is democratic and free, there is no artist worth his or her salt who would turn down a chance to sing in a post-apartheid SA.
But dictators with big bucks on their brains won’t give up that easily.
North Korea has started building itself up to be a tourist hub.
It wasn’t the first madhouse to do that and it won’t be the last.
In honour of his 60th birthday, Kim Il-Sung, otherwise known as the ‘Great Leader’, had this huge bronze statue (to the left) erected to commemorate his rule even during his own lifetime. North Korea says this is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations.
The journalist Daniel Gauss wrote an article about remembering Sun City for Sky News, saying – “Let’s draw inspiration from Sun City and prove (the dictators) wrong.”
His advice to those about to fly away and leave their morals behind to think again before sliding into their business class / first class seats.
”Be responsible in regards to your tourism,“ he said. “Always look at the government and the conditions of the people behind the glitzy attractions. On a figurative level you can always say ‘I ain’t going to play Sun City.’ “
And we should add – Anywhere else where human beings are treated like cattle on their way to the abattoir.
“I ain’t going to play . . .” where, did you say?
