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The Peace Councilwhich was established by the President of the United States Donald Trump in January to oversee the administration.
The organization led by the US recently report the large gap between the economic promises and the real returns, warning of an urgent financial crisis, according to Reuters.
However, experts who track foreign aid to the Palestinians said the drop in funding was neither a surprise nor an oversight. On the contrary, he said that the reluctance of Arab and European donors comes from the conflicting structure of the organization, the political lack of the Palestinian state and the increase of Israeli troops through the besieged area.
Moath al-Amoudi, an international aid expert for Palestine, told Al Jazeera that the widely publicized pledges are closer to a “show” than a humanitarian effort.
“Among the $17bn pledged, the actual amount that reached the ground is zero,” al-Amoudi said. “Donors are afraid to engage with a group that has no political vision and treats Gaza as an American protectorate.”
A history of empty promises
The gap between promises and real returns is a historical one in the Palestinian era, but the US has a much worse record, al-Amoudi said.
After the Oslo Accords of 1993, foreign countries fulfilled only 70 percent of their commitments. The agreement, which was brokered by the US, saw Palestinians and Israelis agree to recognize each other for the first time and led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, which controls the occupied West Bank. But over the years, successive Israeli governments tried to undermine the agreement.
At the time, the US ranked third in repayment, far behind the European Union, which fulfilled more than 95 percent of its pledges, and Arab countries. Similarly, after the 2014 war in Gaza, only 46 percent of the $2.7bn pledged at the Cairo conference was delivered three years later.
Today, things are very difficult. Unlike in the past when aid went to a well-known political group like the Palestinian Authority, the Peace Board essentially puts aside Palestinian political interests.
‘Trade watch’ and seats worth $1bn
Much of the international skepticism comes from the structure of the Peace Board itself.
Previous Al Jazeera reports to be revealed The organization works as a three-party governing body that includes many American billionaires and Israeli figures, such as billionaire Marc Rowan, US representative Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Kushner was involved in the Abraham Accords, which saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan recognize Israel. He said that the Palestinian people cannot govern themselves. He said Gaza has a “precious coastal asset” at the heart of Israel’s civil war that has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians.
The organization’s agreement contains a controversial clause: Countries can ignore the three-year approval period and get a “permanent seat” in their organization to contribute $1bn.
Al-Amoudi described the model of “paying-influence” as a method of “business management” and “unjust expropriation”.
“The U.S. needs a financial institution that acts as a broom to clean up the crimes, mass killings and murderous war committed by Israel,” he said. “Governments have realized that the US is taking them under the guise of development in order to support a project that was not wanted by the Palestinian people and other countries.”
Aid as a ‘political scam’
The organization’s financial crisis is closely related to its political and security problems. The US’s three-pronged plan for Gaza calls for Hamas to disarm all Palestinian allied groups as a prerequisite for economic reconstruction and the opening of the border as Israel continues to violate the October “ceasefire” terms.
Teach ONE to send Nickolay Mladenov he has been leading work in Cairo Under the second phase of the US plan, which aims to replace Hamas, which has taken control of Gaza, is a strategic movement. Mladenov, a former Bulgarian foreign minister and defense minister, was appointed director general of the Peace Board in January.
Experts say that linking aid to military aid without providing an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders turns aid into a weapon. Many countries support the 1967 Palestinian state, which includes the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. But the continued expansion of Israel threatens the future of the Palestinian state.
“If the US had been a fair mediator, it would have offered the Palestinian state to disarm.” But providing emergency aid only by providing equipment is not a negotiation; and conquer by force,” said al-Amoudi.
He described the history of US aid, which has often been marred by corruption and aligned with Israel’s security interests rather than Palestinian needs. A good example, he said, was the floating US military monument that was built off the coast of Gaza during the war. The project, designed to facilitate aid delivery, cost between $220m and $320m and was canceled after just four months.
So far, essential emergency services – such as providing clean water, medicines and pest control – have seen 30 per cent of them completed. Not a single house has been brought to Gaza for the refugees since the US “cease fire”.
The Yellow Line is a modern ghetto
In addition to the political and organizational flaws of the board, the instability of the world makes meaningful reform impossible.
Despite the nominal “end”, the Israeli army has continued its violations on an almost daily basis. According to local medical sources, 828 Palestinians have been killed since the “deal” came into effect.
Al Jazeera’s analysis of satellite images as well has been revealed recently that Israel is systematically changing the established Yellow Line of ceasefire, which demarcates the area occupied by Israeli forces in Gaza. The review found that Israel has also installed cement blocks lining hundreds of meters of Palestinian construction sites. Through this advance, the Israeli army has extended its control over 59 percent of the Gaza Strip.
Israel has to withdraw its forces with the second part of the agreement. Rebuilding will begin in the third and final phase.
With 85 percent of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure destroyed, donors are well aware that any equipment they donate could easily be blown up again, as happened during the second Intifada, the major Palestinian uprising against Israel in the early 2000s.
According to al-Amoudi, the combination of land confiscations by Israel and the Peace Board jeopardizes the demographic change while the situation in Gaza is still difficult.
The plan promises to rebuild Gaza from scratch and includes residential towers, data centers, marinas, parks, sports and an airport. Al Jazeera analysis published in January shows how the plan works in Gaza as a no-man’s land along the coast, promoting glass towers and industrial zones built on old sites.
Citing the Palestinian philosopher Khalil Nakhleh, who invented the “myth of development in occupied Palestine”, al-Amoudi asserted that no real reconstruction can take place without political liberation.
“They want to put Palestinians in places that resemble ‘modern ghettos’ – high-tech prisons with 24-hour security and electronic surveillance,” he said. “Any government with a shred of morals would not allow itself to participate in the operation of the largest prison in modern history.” To fund this without a political strategy is to support what Hannah Arendt called ‘the worst’.
