Miguel Afonso Caetano

"Tellingly, the Davos slideshow just briefly mentioned basic services like water, electricity, and sewage for Palestinians in war-decimated Gaza. Kushner’s presentation mentions Palestinians in the context of “demilitarization principles,” claiming this process will be “led by Palestinians, internationally verified.” The Palestinian public were not involved, not even consulted, in the drafting of these visions. Almost every decision about where they will live, how they will move, and what kind of life they may rebuild was made without them. “From the private sector,” Kushner added, “there will be amazing investment opportunities.”

The reality on the ground in Gaza could not be further removed from these fantasies. The Master Plan does not address how to remove the estimated thousands of tons of unexploded ordnance embedded across the territory or the 61 million metric tons of debris that the U.N. estimates must be cleared before Gaza can begin rebuilding for the long term. Some 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings are destroyed or damaged, forcing much of the population to live in makeshift tents. The territory’s drinkable water is polluted, its agricultural sector all but wiped out. There are thousands of amputees in need of prosthetics and rehabilitation, thousands with permanent hearing damage, thousands of burn cases, and thousands requiring specialist treatment outside Gaza who are unable to leave.
(...)
Seven months into the cease-fire that went into effect in October, violence is still a daily reality. “We’ve gone from a hundred people killed a day to a few killed a day,” she said, “which is considered okay.” Drones menace the remaining buildings. Warships advance suddenly toward the shore without warning."

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/the-board-of-peaces-plot-to-eliminate-gaza.html

#Palestine #Israel #Genocide #StateTerrorism #SettlerColonialism #LandTheft #LandGrabbing #Trump #BoardOfPeace #Imperialism

The Board of Peace’s Plot to Eliminate Gaza

The reality on the ground in Gaza could not be further removed from the fantasies of the Board of Peace, Mohammed Mhawish writes.

Intelligencer
May 30 at 1:34pmWeb
Show threadMiguel Afonso Caetano4d ago

"The map that preoccupies Gazans does not feature artificial islands but rather the Yellow Line, a physical barrier that demarcates where people can live. The line has been advancing incrementally, unstoppably, west into the Strip, pushing Gazans into an ever-narrower band between the sea and a wasteland buffer zone. More than 50 percent of Gaza’s territory is currently inaccessible to Palestinians.

From Alsaqqa’s perspective, it’s obvious that the Board of Peace’s proposals aren’t meant to restore life in Gaza. Rather, they serve interests that are mostly American, Israeli, and Gulf in character. “The talk of the hour now is fuel, oil, the prices of goods,” she said. “Because people need to survive.”

As far-fetched and out of touch as the Master Plan may seem, it is already being presented to donor countries and investors as reference points for reconstruction priorities. This is not to say that many believe the Master Plan or the Gaza Riviera will magically materialize in the next few years or even decades. In fact, the Financial Times reported earlier in May that the Board’s official fund has zero money in it.

Rather, the Board’s political and economic vision for Gaza is quietly embedded, alongside the AI-generated mirages, in the Master Plan, under which Gaza’s economy will exist only within stifling, controllable channels. There is a cursory suggestion its people will have rights, protections, or autonomy. Gaza, as planned, will be a peripheral appendage to Greater Israel, a captive population toiling for low wages and a meager existence, following a pattern that has long been established in the West Bank. I asked Sara Roy, an associate at Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, what the U.S. and Israel hoped to accomplish with their development plan. “It’s about eliminating a Palestinian presence in Gaza,” she said, “eliminating Gaza as the center of resistance, and about ending the whole Palestinian political project to which Gaza is the key.”"