Egypt’s “Comprehensive Visison” to Rebuild Gaza Will Fail

After Trump’s eliminationist rhetoric about making Gaza Palestinerein–and transforming it into Riveria-by-the-Sea–met with disbelief, one of his lackeys said “if you don’t like, propose your own plan”:

Egypt has said it is working on a “comprehensive vision” for the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip that guarantees Palestinians the right to stay on their land, unlike the proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump.

The Egyptians, who desperately want to avoid housing any of this excess humanity on their territory, came up with this plan:

Egyptian officials have been discussing the plan with European diplomats as well as with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates…They are also discussing ways to fund the reconstruction, including an international conference on Gaza reconstruction, said one of the Egyptian officials and an Arab diplomat.

Even with the best of intentions (a stretch, at best) by the Egyptians and other Arab states expected to pledge financial support for the proposed redevelopment, it will fail.  For several reasons:

1. It will not take into considerations the needs and intersts of the Palestinians it claims to help
2. It likely will not coordinate with the rulers of Gaza, who will be, no matter what Netanyahu claims, Hamas
3. The donors who pledge tens of billions in financial support will not fulfill their pledges (this has happened before)
4.  In the next Gaza war, Israel will destroy anything and everything built with this aid

Taking the points in order: the propsective donors will mold a top-down plan which they devise. It will have only nominal input from Gazans, because the interests of the donors and recipients will not be aligned.  The donors have their own interests, while the unhoused Palestinians have their own.  The Gulf States expected to finance this boondoggle, will not do the work necessary to ensure they are funding what the recipients want.

Further evidence to support this is a statement by an Egyptian official stating that while its plan calls for neither Hamas nor Fatah leadership in Gaza, it will recruit former PA officials living in Gaza:

A senior Egyptian diplomat told MEE that [according to] the plan…neither party [Hamas or Fatah] would be in government. Instead, officials would be drawn from across Gaza who belonged to the PA before Hamas came to power in the Strip in 2007 following Palestinian legislative elections…

This is a distinction without a difference. If you remove half a leopard’s spots, it’s still a leopard. One of the notorious figures who is often suggested, is an ex-Fatah strongman once known as the Butcher of Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan. He is currently in exile in UAE.

Despite the blather by Netanyahu, Trump and others that Hamas must not be permitted to return; that it must be eliminated, etc. That is not the case. Hamas has now returned. It now rules Gaza.  It will continue to rule Gaza. Even if, as expected, Netanyahu resumes the war, Israel can never defeat Hamas.  Since the donor states, except perhaps for Qatar, have no relations with Hamas, they likely will not communicate with it regarding their financing and plans.  Any plan that omits the rulers of Gaza is doomed to fail.  You cannot impose a solution on a population and leadership who are not consulted or engaged in the process.

There have been donor conferences in the past of the kind Egypt is proposing.  It’s something that’s been tried before and failed before:

‘Empty words’: Donors fail to deliver pledged Gaza aid.  Countries have given just 26.8 percent of $3.5bn promised for rebuilding Gaza after the 2014 war, report finds.

Participants dutifully attend the event and pledge their support amidst great acclaim.  They take the necessary bow for their largesse and go home.  However, once away from the spotlight they do not fulfill their pledges.  As a result, plans for reconstruction are scaled back. Expectations are unfulfilled. Those who reap the results are the very individuals most vulnerable and in need.  Once again, the Palestinians are betrayed by those most capable of helping them.

The most critical deficit in this plan is the refusal to acknowledge the obvious. The current genocide is the 15th war Israel has fought against Gaza since 1948; and the fifth since 2014. Every time it invades the enclave it destroys virtually all the infrastructure it can, including water, power, sewage treatment, etc.  These are all facilities built with donor funds.  Israel doesn’t care.  It inflicts maximum pain without regard to what it destroys.  The donors obtain no prior- agreement with Israel about avoiding their projects.  The result is wholesale devastation.  Every dollar, pound, shekel or riyal spent is wasted.  Which in turn begins the cylcle all over again.  What donor is willing to continually waste their funds on such vain efforts?

The only way to avoid this empty gesture is by securing a lasting, just peace between Israel and Palestine.  I know this sounds like a bromide you’ve read countless times before.  It’s drilled into your head until your teeth rattle.  Mainly because there’s no hope that there will be such agreement–because Israel rejects it.  But it bears repeating for just this reason.

Maybe enough people will realize that all their efforts, no matter how noble, are wasted without addressing the root cause.  Somewhere, sometime, these erstwhile benefactors will recognize they have to do something different for their largesse to be truly useful and effective.

Nakba 2.0

Remember than the inhabitants of Gaza whom Trump intends to expel, would become refugees for the second time in their history:

Many of those refugees ended up in Gaza, where they and their descendants make up three quarters of the population. Another 900,000 registered refugees live in the occupied West Bank, while 3.4 million others live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the UN.

They are the descendants of indigenous Palestinian forcibly expelled from southern Israel during the Nakba.  This double-tragedy will undoubtedly be lost on any of the participants of this charade.  But Palestinians will remember.

Pro-Israel apologists on social media have rebutted criticism of Trump’s Nakba 2.0 proposal.  They point to previous historical displacements such as the India-Pakistan War, as if to say: they did it before, why would it be so bad if it happened again?  What these historical geniuses forget is that mass expulsions come with enormous cost in loss of life, property, freedom, etc.  A million people died during the 1948 Partition.  Other expulsions offered the same level of suffering: the Trail of Tears forced migration of the Cherokee nation from North Carolina to Oklahoma; the WWII Japanese internment; the Holocaust; the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot genocide; the Rohingya genocide; the African slave trade, during which hundreds of thousands were wrenched from family and home, sold into slavery and transported to America.

Such expulsions constitute genocide.  They are a grave violation of international law.  They also breed eternal hatred of the perpetrators.  They force victims into generations-worth of suffering, poverty and dysfunction.  Should Trump and Netanyahu succeed in their plans, it will redouble Palestinian determination to pay back evil-for-evil. Every empty promise the US president offers to create such a beautiful substitute for their former homes that Gazans will not wish to return, will curdle and turn bitter in his mouth.

This is not a cure for terrorism. It does not promise an end to the pain and suffering of Israeli and Palestinian victims.  It is yet another failed vision, perpetuating the helplessness of victims and perpetrators; and all those who profess to help.