On Albania’s Adriatic coastline, demonstrators clashing with police and private security forces are waving cutout pink flamingos. The bird has become the emblem of protests against the planned tarmacking of a protected nature reserve in the Vjosa-Narta Delta in a multibillion-dollar luxury development project backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

The struggle is linked to the Trump administration in more ways than one. On the other side of the Mediterranean, Albanian forces are preparing to enter the Gaza Strip, as one of four states potentially committing boots on the ground via Donald Trump’s widely reviled Board of Peace. These developments are deeply connected. The Albanian government under right-populist Edi Rama, whose nominally socialist party has been loyal to Washington ever since 1991, is forging ever-deeper ties with Tel Aviv. In Tirana, Israel has found a loyal, Muslim-state partner willing to provide ideological cover and material support in the aftermath of the Gaza genocide.

The proposed Vjosa-Narta megadevelopment is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Local villagers, bird-watchers, and ecological activists have a common fight to save the unspoiled delta from rapacious investors seemingly linked to the Rama administration through a shady network of shell companies. In so doing, they find themselves in an unexpected confrontation with a global constellation of Trump-aligned financial interests and Israeli-linked power brokers.