Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung · 2014
Published in German after the 2014 war and on the eve of the Cairo donor conference, the commentary calls for a transparent, locally led reconstruction system for Gaza, warning that funds routed through the familiar channels would repeat the failures of 2009 and 2012.
Omar Shaban, for the Heinrich Böll Foundation, on a transparent and locally led system for rebuilding Gaza after the 2014 war.
The scale of the destruction cannot yet be quantified precisely. However, if the funds from the Cairo donor conference are to be used for the same type of reconstruction as after the previous two wars, the suffering in Gaza will continue unabated.
The Gaza Strip—one of the most densely populated territories in the world—has experienced three wars in only seven years. The third war, however, was worse than the previous two. The 22-day Israeli attack in 2008/09 and the eight-day attack in 2012 were terrible—and I say this as someone who lived through and survived both—but the latest war surpassed them both.
It is too early to quantify precisely the scale of the destruction and the number of casualties. The damage is still being assessed, and because the destruction was so massive, this process is estimated to be completed only in several months. UNRWA, UNDP, and major ministries of the Palestinian Authority have agreed to assess the damage jointly. Preliminary figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as well as other trustworthy sources, indicate that during the 51 days of war, 2,133 Palestinians were killed, including 1,489 civilians, among them 500 children and 257 women.
Among those killed were 16 journalists, 23 medical personnel, and eleven UNRWA employees. In addition, there are more than 11,000 injured, many of whom suffer from severe injuries that will leave permanent disabilities. On the Israeli side, 69 people died, including four civilians and one foreign national. Initial estimates indicate that the war damage amounts to three billion US dollars. (See the report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). But this war was not only worse than the previous ones because there were more deaths—it will also be considerably more difficult this time to reconstruct Gaza. The destruction is cumulative, because much of the damage caused by the previous two wars had still not been repaired or rebuilt. Before the latest war, 500 families were still awaiting the reconstruction of their homes destroyed in the previous wars. Much of the damage caused to infrastructure and wells had also still not been repaired. It is estimated that the 2008/09 war alone caused damage of around 1.7 billion US dollars—affecting farms, factories, public utilities, government buildings, roads, the electricity and water networks, the sanitation system, as well as the telephone network (see the Amnesty International report).
## A preliminary assessment of the damage
The extent of the damage that occurred in the summer of 2014 emerges from the following estimates, which are still provisional: the Initial Rapid Assessment of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as well as the Humanitarian Dashboard of the same organization. Both sources show that
20,000 housing units were completely destroyed or severely damaged; 24,300 were partially destroyed.
500,000 people—or 28 percent of the population—had to flee their homes during the war and seek refuge in shelters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as well as in schools and parks. It is currently estimated that 108,000 people cannot return home, as their houses have become uninhabitable because of war damage. Most of these people have lost not only their homes, but also all their possessions—furniture, clothing, cars, and documents.
tanks containing a total of 300,000 liters of industrial diesel intended for Gaza’s sole power plant were destroyed, and the plant itself was put out of service.
that as a result of this destruction, Gaza is experiencing major supply shortages, and that the population has electricity for only four to six hours a day.
dozens of wells and wastewater treatment plants were destroyed, and that an environmental catastrophe posing serious risks to the health of the population is looming.
nearly 450 factories and commercial establishments were destroyed, including shops, gas stations, and cement plants in the border area.
many government institutions were also affected, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Waqf), the General Personnel Council, as well as dozens of mosques.
## A new donor conference
A donors’ conference was held in Cairo on 12 October 2014, devoted to international aid for the reconstruction of Gaza. This conference was proposed by the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs during a visit to Qatar in mid-July, during the negotiations aimed at a ceasefire. In this regard, it should be recalled that after the end of Operation Cast Lead, on 2 March 2009, a conference for the reconstruction of Gaza had already been held in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt). At the time, representatives of 70 states and 16 international organizations took part, but Gaza’s institutions, including the Hamas leadership, were not present. The fact that the action plan was moreover presented only in English (an Arabic version appeared only months later) showed that the Palestinian Authority had no interest in involving Palestinian institutions from civil society, academia, and other sectors in the process. At that conference, the then Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, presented a plan worth 2.8 billion US dollars, although 52% of it was to be paid into the Palestinian Authority’s budget in order to cover financial deficits. In fact, funds totaling 4.48 billion US dollars were subsequently pledged — that is, 167% of what the Palestinian Authority had estimated — an exceptional result when it comes to international financial aid. The dramatic situation in which Gaza finds itself today — much of the damage from the previous war was never repaired — raises the question of what share of the pledged funds was actually disbursed, and where this money was directed. To date, there is no comprehensive documentation addressing this question.
The EU, which donated 20 million euros in 2010 to enable the reconstruction of some of the major factories that had been destroyed, must ask itself whether it wants once again to invest taxpayers’ money in reconstruction that will take place without a political solution, and without a sustainable and transparent reconstruction plan. All those who seriously want Gaza to be truly and sustainably rebuilt must today, in the current political climate, ask themselves precisely this question, failing which history risks repeating itself.
Even if Hamas does not participate in the next donors’ conference — and nothing indicates that it will be invited — there are other institutions and figures from Gaza that could take part. Hamas will most likely provide the Palestinian Authority with all the information necessary for the negotiations. For, in order to gain popularity, the organization wants at all costs to prove to the people of Gaza that it is taking part in the negotiating process.
## How to revitalize Gaza
For reconstruction to be successful, the international community must pressure Israel to end the blockade of Gaza. Only then will raw materials be able to be imported again. Otherwise, Gaza will in the long term have to live on alms. The mistakes of the past must not be repeated. The Palestinian Authority, as well as international and regional donors, should engage regularly and thoroughly with the Hamas leadership, as well as with NGOs, professional associations, and universities in Gaza, so that the damage can be assessed accurately and appropriate measures can be decided upon and implemented. Particular care should be taken to ensure that, as far as possible, local companies and institutions are entrusted with the necessary work, so that the reconstruction of Gaza is a national rather than an international project, and so that a large share of the funds genuinely benefits Palestinian society. Local, regional, and international donors, as well as fundraising campaigns for Gaza, must be coordinated. Work on the ground must also be planned precisely, in order to avoid overlap. A transparent system must be established to allow the tracking of donated funds, and to inform potential beneficiaries how they can gain access to them. The body managing these funds, as well as the principles applied to them, must be transparent. It is important to discuss how to mobilize the accumulated bank deposits in the territories of the Palestinian Authority — after all, these amount to eight billion US dollars. One possibility would be for the Palestinian Authority to take out loans from the banks and use these funds to purchase, by means of mortgages, housing for families made homeless by the war. Remarkably, several thousand apartments are unoccupied, especially in Gaza City but also elsewhere in Gaza, because they are too expensive.
Mortgage programs could be established in order to use bank deposits to remedy the housing shortage. With regard to major projects, internationally recognized investment instruments could be used, such as concessions, strategic partnerships, and joint ventures, in order to develop the energy supply, build a seaport and an airport, and launch regional development projects. These are only a few avenues that would allow the Palestinians of Gaza to regain a normal and dignified life. In 2012, the UN predicted that Gaza would become uninhabitable in 2020 if ongoing developments were not halted. That was before the latest war. If the 1.8 million Palestinians are not to be condemned to live in an uninhabitable place, reconstruction must begin very soon.
## The Human Cost of War
War is not only the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. War is more than statistics and costs. Behind every detail lies the story of a human being. One of the largest factories destroyed during the war employed 400 people. I know the founder of this factory very well. I still remember that he started 30 years ago with a small bakery in a warehouse, where cakes and ice cream were produced. Before the war, the value of his factory was estimated at 20 million US dollars.
Toward the end of the war, the Israeli army destroyed some of Gaza’s tallest residential buildings. One of them was Al Zafer 4 Tower, built in 1997. It was a twelve-story building with 42 apartments; 300 people lived there. The residents of the building were given 15 minutes to evacuate, and then it was destroyed. How can 300 people decide in such a short time, among all their memories and all their belongings, what matters most to them and what they should take with them? One of the residents, a journalist, uses a wheelchair.
He wrote an article in which he described his immense anger and asked why a residential building inhabited by members of the middle class—doctors, engineers, and teachers—had been chosen as a target. More painful still, he wrote, is losing things more important than a building—losing memories, books, personal belongings that cannot be replaced. Among his possessions was a CD on which 15 years of his work as a journalist had been stored. Buildings can be rebuilt, memories cannot. To overcome this despair, a bold new political attempt is needed, an approach that finally gives the people of Gaza the possibility of living in dignity and in peace.
An earlier version of this article was published in English on the Shabaka website.
## Additional Content
Dossier: Gaza - Prospects after the War
After 50 days of war, almost nothing has changed in the status quo of the conflict in the Middle East. But for the people concerned, the war has very real consequences. Analyses and assessments from Israel and Palestine.
## Dossier: Gaza - Prospects after the War
Like a Visit to Prison
René Wildangel, director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation office in Ramallah, traveled to the Gaza Strip after the most recent war. What is frightening is not only the scale of the damage caused to buildings and infrastructure, but also the deep traumatization of the inhabitants.
Dr. René Wildangel
## Like a Visit to Prison
The Environmental State of Emergency Threatening Gaza
Drinking water is scarce in Gaza, and the electricity supply is constantly interrupted. The construction materials needed to rebuild the infrastructure are lacking. At the same time, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of a particularly sharp rise in temperatures in the region.
Ahmad Abu Safieh
## The Environmental State of Emergency Threatening Gaza
Topic: Gaza Reconstruction — 2014 war · donor conference · local ownership — Text © Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source