Washington, USA – Global management consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG) developed a controversial blueprint to relocate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to countries such as Somalia and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, the Financial Times has reported.
The work said to have been carried out for Israeli businessmen preparing for the post-war redevelopment of the besieged territory, examined the “voluntary and temporary” deportation of Palestinians. The plan has been sharply condemned by human rights groups, which have branded it a framework for ethnic cleansing.
The idea stemmed from BCG’s collaboration with the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a newly established organization involved in aid distribution.
Documents reviewed by the Financial Times indicate that the firm’s modeling suggested countries agreeing to host Palestinian migrants could reap significant economic benefits — with a potential $4.7 billion boost for host nations within just four years.
BCG has since moved to publicly distance itself from the proposal, saying the partner who led the work was instructed not to move forward.
The lure of recognition
The inclusion of Somalia and Somaliland in the plan is particularly striking. According to the source material, the modeling drew on media reports that Israeli and US officials had floated the idea of East African nations accepting Palestinian deportees.
A key incentive allegedly put on the table was the possibility of formal diplomatic recognition of Somaliland as an independent state.
Somaliland, located in northwestern Somalia, broke away and declared independence in 1991 but has not secured broad international recognition. For its administration in Hargeisa, acknowledgment from the United States or Israel would represent a landmark diplomatic breakthrough.
The proposal reportedly estimated that around 25 percent of Gaza’s Palestinian population might opt to relocate, with most unlikely to return.
“By accepting the Gazans who relocate temporarily and voluntarily, a country will get an injection of population that will have an economic benefit that clearly could be significant,” a person familiar with the modeling told the Financial Times.
The plan aligns with rhetoric from some far-right Israeli politicians and ties into earlier redevelopment visions linked to former US President Donald Trump, including the concept of a “Trump Riviera” along Gaza’s coastline. T
he Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has consistently condemned any mass deportation of Palestinians, warning that “their forced displacement… is strictly prohibited under international law.”
A web of international actors
BCG’s involvement reportedly began when Orbis Business Intelligence, a US security contractor, approached the firm to conduct a feasibility study for a new Gaza aid operation.
That connection was made through Phil Reilly, a former CIA officer who served as a senior adviser to BCG for eight years. Reilly now heads Safe Reach Solutions, a security company tasked with protecting GHF’s aid hubs in Gaza.
The controversy also touches the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. According to the Financial Times, staff from the institute — founded by the former British prime minister — participated in post-war Gaza projects that used the financial models BCG had developed.
BCG, one of the world’s most prestigious consulting firms and an alma mater of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has sought to make clear that the relocation modeling was “not commissioned by any Israeli government body” and was instead “an internal, unsanctioned effort by a single partner.”