AT PENPOINT
The breakdown of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza not only meant the resumption of the slaughter of Palestinians but also the destruction of both US President Donald Trump’s proposal for the rehabilitation of Faza, as well as the Arab League–OIC proposal, which is actually an Egyptian Plan.
Egypt is actually involved in both plans, for while in the OIC plan it is merely the proposer, in Trump’s plan it is the destination of a portion of the Gazans. Jordan is supposed to be the other. They are both vociferously reluctant to take on any more Palestinian refugees, not to mention that the whole world has been horrified by the idea of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza (and perhaps then the West Bank).
The Egyptian proposal has a price tag of Rs 58 billion on it, $58 billion, which will go into building 20,000 buildings within six months, with 200,000 homes. With the entire population to be housed in 30 months. The plan includes the restoration of water, waste, telecom and electricity supplies would be restored, while an industrial zone, commercial port, fishing port and airport would be developed.
The plan did not specify who would put up the money, but said that a ‘technocratic committee’ would control aid and governance, while a Steering and Management Council would support the committee and presumably control the funds.
With such a large amount, and that too for reconstruction, some money would stick to all the figures involved: the contractors, those awarding the contracts, and all those involved in the execution of the contracts. It would be a fair assumption that whichever government puts up the money, would want effective representation on that Committee. At the moment, no one has committed the funding, not even the Gulf Cooperation Council’s oil-rich states. Instead, an international donors’ conference has been proposed. Keeping in view previous such conferences, held for Afghanistan, only if the USA was fully behind the plan and doing some serious behind-the-scenes arm-twisting, will the money be raised.
One of the main issues with the plan is that the two committees are to be under the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, but which was expelled from Gaza in 2008, after fighting between Al-Fateh and Hamas.
Israel will not accept Hamas in power, but Hamas might not accept the disarmament it requires. Israel has managed to rub long with the Palestinian Authority because it has helped in the policing of the West Bank, at least to the extent of its police helping the Israeli police in its operations designed to suppress resistance by the Palestinians against Israel. Egypt and Jordan are willing to train a new security force for Gaza, which will presumably be as helpful to the Israelis as the kapos, one prisoner-guards in concentration camps were to the Nazis.
One of the more interesting offers made in response to the Egyptian plan, though not forming part of it, was the offer by the Palestinian Authority and Al-Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas to hold elections next year, if conditions allow. Though elections have been spoken about for some time now, they have not been held, As the last election was held in 2006, including Mahmoud Abbas’, everyone’s mandate is now threadbare. This is not much of a concern in the Arab world, where nobody has come to office through election. Going by its previous dealings with Arab states, Israel too has no problems about legitimacy.
One of the basic assumptions of the plan, so basic that it was not spelt out, was that the Israelis were not attacking any more. That has now been shown not to exist, and the further question is raised of what guarantee is there that there would be the huge effort of reconstruction, only for Israel to reduce everything to rubble once again. The sacking was stayed by an Israeli court after the Shin Bet began investigating the involvement of the PM’s Office in the Qatargate corruption scandal.
Things have become even more complicated after he sacked the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, after his failure to prevent the October 2023 action
Another sinister development for Palestinians has been the Israeli announcement of an ad hoc authority to ‘help’ Gazans migrate through Israel. Israel has threatened to annex parts of Gaza if 59 prisoners still held by Hamas are not returned. This raises suspicions that the land grab is still on.
There are a couple of issues involved. One is Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The war continuing as it is suits him, and not just because he is a rightist, and includes extremists within his coalition. It does not help that he is facing corruption charges which will move back to the centre of Israeli political debate once the war is over.
Then there is the vexed issue of funding the reconstruction. Israel would probably avoid donating to the proposed fund (even though it did all the damage), but its being excluded from the process of wedding contracts is most likely to be unwelcome.
The end of the ceasefire has two consequences: first, the death of the Trump proposal; second, the example for the West Bank. There has been too much attention paid to the fact that the Trump proposal has been rejected, indeed reviled, by the rb countries whose cooperation was essential, but not enough to the fact that its funding had not been specified. True, Trump approached the issue as a real-estate developer rather than anything else. But he would have realized that even if the land was free, development means bricks and mortar- construction costs. He couldn’t build the Wall during his first term, and certainly couldn’t get Mexico to pay for it, so a[art from anything else, that was a problematic aspect of the proposal.
His proposal would have preserved the Gazans from being bombed by the Israelis, but it would have been at the cost of their no longer being Gazans, assuming that Jordan or Egypt would accept them. Incidentally, the Palestinians in Jordan are not anything but Palestinian refugees. Even those members of the Palestinian diaspora who have obtained citizenship of their host countries (such as the USA or within Latin America) still consider themselves Palestinians, and there are examples of such people who have passed on the keys of their house to descendants, houses from which they fled in horror and danger just ahead of marauding Israeli gangs.
In fact, one of the major issues for Palestinians is the Right of Return. While Jews, no matter what the nationality, have a Right of Return. In the shape of being guaranteed a right to Israeli citizenship, and to a place in the settlements, Palestinians who, or whose progenitors, had been forced out of Palestine by An-Nakba in 1948, are forbidden from going back now.
The ceasefire ending may have as a motive getting the Trump proposal back on the table, but the problem of the West Bank would not be solved. The prospect of Palestinians becoming a majority is increased by the large number of Israelis who have migrated, mostly to Europe, after the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Another sinister development for Palestinians has been the Israeli announcement of an adhoc authority to ‘help’ Gazans migrate through Israel. Israel has threatened to annex parts of Gaza if 59 prisoners still held by Hamas are not returned. This raises suspicions that the land grab is still on.
