Mark Knight’s Gaza ‘toon imagines Trump towers rising from rubble

Donald Trump’s promise to US citizens was that he would “make America great again”. Whether he achieves that over the next four years will be for history to decide, but the one thing he has done in the first few weeks of his second presidential term is to make cartooning great again.

I’m trying not to draw Mr Trump every single day, but I easily could, such is the news flowing from the Oval Office*! The Donald came out with all guns blazing*, signing numerous bills into law, Elon Musk’s flexing* of power and Trump having a border security win, when both Canadian and Mexican governments upgraded their border security forces rather than allowing Trump’s threat of sanctions* to become an overnight economic reality.

If that wasn’t enough, Trump then made a huge statement while Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House.

The President told a gobsmacked* press pack that America would take control of Palestinian Gaza* and redevelop it as a “Riviera* of the Middle East”. He would relocate Gaza’s Palestinian population to neighbouring countries like Jordan* and Egypt*!

When everybody regained consciousness, they wondered if he was serious or being typical Trump with another outrageous statement that would later be wound back?

The one thing I did know was that this was a great subject for that day’s cartoon!

If you look at pictures of Gaza City, it is mainly rubble, following the war between Israel and Hamas after Hamas’* terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

I thought this devastation had to be in my cartoon, juxtaposed* with an image of Trump’s “Riviera” proposal for the area.

I started to sketch the remains of Gaza and several women and children walking along a road through the ruins.

Then I had the idea to portray Trump’s policy on a billboard, like some ad for a seaside property development. The billboard had a picture of gleaming high-rises overlooking golden beaches filled with umbrellas and beachgoers. President Trump is in the picture in his red cap, giving the big thumbs up.

But I needed a headline.

Then it came to me: it simply said, “MAKE GAZA GREAT AGAIN!” A message at the bottom of the billboard says that condos* are selling now.

I knew the women I drew in the foreground would have to make some comment to give the cartoon depth, so after some thought I decided they should be talking about the Trump solution to this conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

One woman asks if the plan is the well-known “two state” solution*. The other comments that it is more like a “real estate solution”.

Policies on peace in the Middle East have spectacularly failed over many decades. Could Donald Trump’s “bold, crazy, audacious* plan” work? Well, has anyone got a better idea?

POLL

GLOSSARY

• Oval Office: the White House office used by the President of the United States
• all guns blazing: an expression that means doing something with huge force and energy, often all of a sudden
• flexing: posing, preening, showing off your pride in yourself to a degree others find off-putting
• sanctions: strong action taken in order to make a country, group or person obey a law or rule, or to punish them economically for something they have or have not done
• gobsmacked: shocked, astounded, so surprised as to be left speechless
• Gaza: the Gaza Strip is a city as well as a small, bitterly contested territory on the east coast of the Mediterranean
• Riviera: glamorous resort region of the Mediterranean, including some of Europe’s most popular seaside destinations like Saint Tropez and Cannes in France
• Jordan: an Arab Muslim nation located in the north of the Arabian Peninsula and in West Asia, bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south and southeast, and Hamas-controlled Palestine (the West Bank) to the west
• Egypt: home to the pyramids with Cairo as its capital, Egypt is a republic in North East Africa on the Mediterranean and Red Sea and its history dates back about 5000 years
• Hamas: a listed terrorist organisation in Australia and described by the Australian National Security site as an “ideologically and religiously-motivated violent extremist organisation”. Hamas has controlled Palestine since 2007
• juxtaposed: putting things that aren’t similar next to each other for a sharp contrast
• condos: short for condominium, a unit, apartment or townhouse in a building or complex full of them
• two state solution: a plan to create a Palestinian state separate from the state of Israel
• audacious: bold, daring, also presumptuous

EXTRA READING

World leaders remember Holocaust

Google to rename Gulf of Mexico

What is the Israel and Palestine conflict?

QUICK QUIZ

1. What is Donald Trump’s now famous campaign slogan?
2. What was Trump’s early border security victory at both ends of the US?
3. What happened on October 7, 2023 to start the war between Hamas-controlled Palestine and Israel?
4. Which two countries were among those Trump suggested for resettling Palestinians?
5. Which famous European resort region did Trump invoke in his proposal for Gaza?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What else would they say?
Write the rest of the conversation that you think the women in the cartoon could have.

Use Mark Knight’s ideas and your own thoughts about the situation.

Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

2. Extension
Cartoonist Mark Knight has written that he’s trying hard not to draw Mr Trump every day! Can you help him? Think about other topics, people or events in the news this week that you think are important and interesting enough for him to create cartoons about.

Write a letter or email to Mark explaining your ideas, why they are just as important as what the US President is doing, and why you think they would make great cartoons. You could even draw a cartoon to inspire him. Check out the Kids News website or use your research skills to see what’s in the news right now.

Time: allow at least 45 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.

Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.

(For lower reading level articles, remove “add a preposition”)