Just before the Israel-Hamas war ceasefire deal, Donald Trump’s son-in-law doubled his stake in an Israeli firm that stands to gain from expanding Israeli settlements.

“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable. It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner said in March 2024.

Freddy Brewster & Katya Schwenk, THE LEVER, JAN 16, 2025

Jared Kushner, President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close confidant, on Wednesday doubled his stake in an Israeli financial firm that stands to gain from turbocharging Israeli settlements in Palestine — just before the announcement of a ceasefire deal that Kushner may have helped advise on.

Now, amid the potential wind-down of Israel’s war in Gaza, Trump’s former top Middle East adviser and family member is poised to benefit from expanding settlement efforts in Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation, which are illegal under international law and are driving mounting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. 

Already, in the hours following the ceasefire announcement, Trump announced his administration would lift sanctions brought by the Biden administration against violent Israeli settlers. According to the United Nations, settlers were responsible for more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians last year — the highest level of Israeli settler violence ever recorded.

On Wednesday, hours before the ceasefire deal was formally announced, Israeli regulators approved a deal that gave Kushner nearly 10 percent ownership in Phoenix Financial Ltd, a major Israeli finance and insurance firm, making him the company’s largest shareholder. 

Affinity Partners, Kushner’s private equity firm that is backed by a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and the source of several Senate investigations, first invested in Phoenix Financial back in July, acquiring a 4.95 percent stake in the company. At the time, Affinity proposed to double that share if regulators gave the green light. This week, they did.

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“Investing in Phoenix in July 2024 was a decision rooted in my belief in Israel’s resiliency and the fundamentals of Phoenix’s business,” Kushner told Bloomberg News. “Six months later, the increased value of our shares reaffirms my conviction — both in Israel’s strength and the growing promise of Phoenix.”

Ending violence in the region could benefit Phoenix Financial’s bottom line. 

In July, the Phoenix Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Phoenix Financial, received an A- rating from S&P Global, an independent credit rating company. The grade is the same as the company’s previous rating from Dec. 2023. However, S&P noted in its latest rating that although Phoenix Insurance will not likely be financially impacted from conflict in the region, there could be negative economic consequences “if the conflict were to spread more widely.”

“A widening of the scope of the conflict beyond Gaza could also prompt a negative action,” the ratings company noted. 

Phoenix Financial, one of Israel’s largest financial and insurance firms, has financed and insured construction projects throughout Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights. Phoenix owns an 80 percent stake in a large shopping mall in an East Jerusalem settlement and stakes in various companies operating throughout other settlements, according to Who Profits, a research center that investigates companies profiting from Israeli occupation.

Phoenix Financial, previously known as Phoenix Holdings, has helped financewind and solar projects in Israeli settlements and provided financial services to the local councils of settlements, including the Beitar Illit and Oranit settlements in the West Bank.

The Israeli government approved a plan in December to expand settlements in the Golan Heights by investing more than $11 million to “encourage demographic growth” in the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The new expansion plan was announced a week after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the country as rebels seized control of the capital.

The company’s investments are emblematic of the profits that many firms see in the expansion of Israeli settlements. Banks partner with developers to build homes on land unlawfully seized from Palestinians, turning the seizures into big returns. Other companies profit from agricultural lands and water sources.

Kushner has spoken openly about the potential of such investments. At an event at Harvard University last March, as war raged in Gaza, Kushner observed that “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable.”

“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” he added.

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Israeli settlers — and the financial firms invested in the settlements — are likely to see strengthened U.S. support under a second Trump administration. 

In Trump’s first term, illegal settlements in the West Bank expanded massively as the president threw his support beyond Israel’s territorial claims. After Trump’s victory in November, Israeli settlers in the West Bank celebrated, hoping that a second Trump administration would mean securing additional control over the occupied territory as well as expanding settlements into Gaza. 

Settlers will also have an ally in Kushner, who is likely to be influential on Middle East policy in a second Trump administration, even though he’s not set to have an official role in the administration.

As ceasefire negotiations have progressed, Kushner has been reportedlyadvising Trump officials behind the scenes. Although the Biden administration and leading Democrats said for months that they had been working “tirelessly” on a ceasefire, negotiations saw a breakthrough this week, reportedly due to the involvement of the incoming Trump administration.

According to Haaretz, a prominent Israeli news outlet, the Biden administration allowed real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, to lead the current negotiation process that helped broker the ceasefire deal. Kushner has been advising Witkoff, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

“He’s been focusing on getting Steve up to speed on the file and helping Steve with strategy,” one source told Reuters.

During the first Trump administration, Kushner served as a senior adviser to the president and oversaw certain policy decisions in the Middle East. Six months after he left his role in the White House, Kushner received a $2 billion investment in his private equity firm from the Saudi wealth fund that is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Both President Joe Biden and Trump are claiming credit for the ceasefire deal, though Biden has acknowledged Witkoff’s role in the negotiations. 

“For the past few days, we have been speaking as one team,” Biden said during a White House press conference.