A year ago, US President Donald Trump unveiled his 20-point plan for Gaza. As part of this, he promoted his vision of a Board of Peace, a body that became a reality in January. Yet, as $2.45 billion of bold new projects were unveiled to great fanfare on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week, one has to ask: How does one audit the success or failure of this body and the plan it was meant to implement?
Its proponents will point to the ceasefire of Oct. 10 last year that emanated from the plan. In theory, the ceasefire still stands. In practice, it never even got off the ground and was almost completely one-sided. Over the last 12 months, Israel has killed at least 1,381 Palestinians in Gaza.
The plan was deeply flawed, being devoid of proper sequencing and with zero obligations placed on the occupying power — Israel, for those not paying attention. Aid was meant to flow into Gaza but major obstacles remain, with even wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs being blocked by Israel. Still Palestinians ask when Israel will withdraw from Gaza. The International Stabilization Force has not yet entered the Strip, nor has the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which is charged with the day-to-day running of the area under the colonial-style supervision of the Board of Peace that appointed it.
A constant theme, from the drafting of the 20-point plan to the constitution and makeup of the Board of Peace, was the deliberate absence of Palestinians and total denial of any Palestinian national agenda. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan. Hamas was told to accept the deal or face the consequences. This was a surrender-or-die deal.
The plan was deeply flawed, being devoid of proper sequencing and with zero obligations placed on the occupying power
Chris Doyle
Another thing missing was our long-absent friend: accountability. There remains no mechanism to address war crimes, crimes against humanity, the crime of starvation or genocide. The Board of Peace had nothing to say about any of this.
What shocked some was the way in which, by January, the Board of Peace had repurposed itself to being a body with global ambitions, not just one that deals with Gaza. Be in no doubt that one of the key aims of the Board of Peace was to eliminate the UN from serious involvement in Gaza. Even now, it refuses to deal with UNRWA, the only agency truly able to deliver aid at scale within Gaza.
What was tragic was how major powers caved in to Trump’s pressure and the Board of Peace was incorporated into a UN Security Council resolution last November. The UNSC effectively subcontracted its responsibilities to a body which, at the time, did not even exist and was wholly controlled by the leader of one state.
The only offerings so far are slide decks of ever ritzier real estate projects in Gaza, largely disconnected from Palestinian life or aspirations.
The only offerings so far are slide decks of ever ritzier real estate projects in Gaza, largely disconnected from Palestinian life
Chris Doyle
It says something when a key driver and founder of the Board of Peace is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. His record of consistent and chronic failure in the Middle East does not restrain his penchant for telling the world what the Palestinians truly need. “There is talk of ‘Free Palestine’ but for Palestinians living in Gaza, they don’t need a slogan; they need a solution,” he said last week. This from a man who was never short of a slogan. This sums up the Blair-Jared Kushner approach that Palestinians do not deserve freedom and self-determination and just need to be grateful for what they are given.
The Board of Peace still claims that it is about improving livelihoods for Palestinians. Pedro Manuel Moreno, acting secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, last week presented a dim view of the economic situation in the Strip: “The collapse of the economy of Gaza is the world’s most severe economic crisis on record.”
As for the $2.45 billion of projects — although about $18 billion has been pledged, only $280 million has been handed over so far — as yet, there is no starting date for reconstruction. Instead, the cycle of destruction continues. Donors are hardly being enticed to invest.
It is hard to argue that the cynics have been proved wrong. The Board of Peace has not failed. It has been a roaring success for its architects. It has stemmed the pressure for action to end the genocide in Gaza because of a ceasefire in name only. Israel has not only failed to withdraw but has expanded the area of Gaza it directly controls from about 53 percent under the plan to nearly 70 percent. It sidelined the UN and the Palestinians. It severed the issue of Gaza from the West Bank at the very time that major states such as the UK and France were recognizing a state of Palestine.
It has readied the stage for a further Israeli war on Gaza that Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened will “finish the job.” In his hellacious vision, those Palestinians not killed will be forcibly removed from Gaza, in what he euphemistically calls “voluntary migration” — more commonly known as ethnic cleansing. Chilling.
Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech
