A donor conference to rebuild Gaza… history repeats itself — will we learn?

By: Omar Shaban
Just after the first Israeli war of December 2008–January 2009 on the Gaza Strip, with what it left behind of destruction, killing, and displacement, a donors' conference was called under the title “Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip”, held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on the second of March 2009, in which representatives of 70 states and 16 regional organisations took part. In it the Palestinian government of that time — headed, and its finance minister also, by Dr Salam Fayyad — presented its plan of a value of 2.8 billion, of which 1326 million dollars, “a proportion of 48%”, for the reconstruction of Gaza, while 1450 million dollars, “a proportion of 52%”, was allocated to support the Palestinian Authority's budget and plug the chronic deficit in its budget.

The plan was prepared without any participation from institutions in the Gaza Strip, and the conference hall accommodated all the world's delegations except representatives from the Gaza Strip. The plan was presented in the English language, and no Arabic copy of it became available until months afterwards — which demonstrated conclusively the government's ignoring, at that time, of the concept and foundations of partnership and consultation with Palestinian society and its institutions. The states and the donor bodies pledged 4.7 billion dollars, that is, 167% higher than what the Palestinian government requested in its plan. We are the only authority in the world that is given more than it asks. Despite the talk — which gave us a severe headache — about transparency and that Gaza seizes 56% of the general budget, no detailed statement of the results of the Sharm el-Sheikh conference has been presented until now; it is not known how much are the amounts actually paid, and how they were allocated! What many do not know is that there are more than 500 families of those harmed by the 2008–2009 war still on the waiting list, despite the huge money pumped with the goal of reconstruction.

Talk has begun of a new donors' conference to be held at the beginning of September in Oslo, the capital of Norway, with the goal of recruiting money for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Should this conference convene, the history of humanity will record that the Gaza Strip — that very small spot full of inhabitants — is the only place that has been subjected to three destructive wars and witnessed reconstruction three times in seven years, a very short period in the life of states, during which huge money was allocated, and the Gaza Strip still suffers poverty, unemployment, the continuous cutting of electricity, and the clear poverty in infrastructure services.

And since history repeats itself so that we take heed.. will our current government avoid the failings and the ignoring of the previous governments toward the Gaza Strip? Will the plan be presented in the English language or in the Arabic language — reminding the Palestinian government, and the reminder may avail, that the Arabic language is the first language in Palestine, and that Palestine is a member of the League of Arab States and is not a member of the British Commonwealth organisation. Will the thousands of families that lost their houses and live in the open and in the schools wait coming years before obtaining their right to a house that guarantees them their respect and their dignity? And will we in the Gaza Strip wait years to recover the electricity and some dignity! The slowness in fulfilling the needs of the thousands of the displaced will make the entire Gaza Strip an immense refugee camp across whose parts tens of thousands of tents spread — which represents a stab at people's dignity and a denial of their steadfastness; likewise it will create dangerous social, humanitarian, and health crises, and will consume immense expanses of the agricultural lands. In addition, the remaining of millions of tons of debris will cause an environmental disaster and a health nuisance.

Will the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip be employed to obtain international aid allocated to plug the chronic budget deficit resulting from the Finance Ministry's mismanagement! Instead of supporting our people in the Gaza Strip, who lived days and nights of terror in light of an aggression without precedent! We must not allow that, and the institutions and the political forces — not in the Gaza Strip only but in the northern governorates also — and their national personalities and the deputies of the Legislative Council must confront all the attempts to marginalise the Gaza Strip and stop the dealing with disdain with its suffering. The Gaza Strip is an inseparable part of the Palestinian political project and must be dealt with on an equal footing and with a real, actual partnership that surpasses the embellished statements.

I repeat the reminder of what I asked, in an article published previously, of Minister Shawqi al-Issa, minister of social affairs and head of the emergency committee supervising the assistance allocated to the Gaza Strip

Mr Minister: in your capacity as head of the central emergency committee I call on you to set a detailed list comprising all the donations and the cash and in-kind assistance that was allocated to the Gaza Strip, and likewise the items of disbursement, the mechanism of disbursement, and the bodies that were authorised with that — for the sake of strengthening transparency and trust and recovering the unity of feeling before the political unity between our people in the governorates of the north and the south and with the Palestinian Authority and its people. With my affirmation that the Palestinian people in the southern governorates and the northern governorates is unified and of one heart, despite the poisoned attempts of those whose validity has expired to instil the spirit of rancour and racism between them.