Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Al Rai Media · 2009
Omar Shaban examines Gaza’s reconstruction after the 27 December 2008–17 January 2009 war as a complex issue in which humanitarian needs are inseparable from political, economic, local, regional, and international factors. He argues that reconstruction must be treated as a national developmental project that goes beyond housing and economic recovery to include political and national rehabilitation after division, internal fighting, and the separation between Gaza and the West Bank. He cites war losses of about $3 billion, alongside more than $15 billion in broader Palestinian economic losses by the end of 2005, and points to over 5,000 families left homeless, 15,000 with partially damaged homes, and around 600 factories totally destroyed. He stresses that fully opening the crossings and achieving national reconciliation are necessary preconditions for reconstruction, while warning of gaps between donor pledges and actual funding.
Omar Shaban, February 2009: Gaza’s reconstruction requires open crossings and national reconciliation.
Despite its clear humanitarian dimension, the issue of reconstructing the Gaza Strip after the massive destruction caused by the Israeli war on the Strip is difficult and complex, as multiple factors intersect within it: the humanitarian overlaps with the political and the economic, and the local with the regional and the international. This is how the issue has appeared since the war laid down its burdens and the scale of the enormous destruction affecting all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip became evident. The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip came after a severe and suffocating blockade on the Strip since June 2007, which brought the economic, political, and social situation to its worst state. The Palestinian economy, since the end of 2000, had been moving from bad to worse until the volume of losses, according to international estimates, exceeded $15 billion by the end of 2005. Politically as well, the issue of reconstruction comes amid a sharp Palestinian division that has cast its shadow over all issues and relations... Palestinian and Arab alike. On the social level, the Gaza Strip witnessed the highest rates of poverty and unemployment, rising prices, the unavailability of goods and humanitarian services, the spread of diseases, increasing rates of anemia, and other effects.
Hence, the issue of reconstructing the Gaza Strip must be dealt with as a national developmental project that includes not only housing and economic rehabilitation, but must go beyond that to include political and national rehabilitation of everything caused by the division, internal fighting, and the geographic and emotional separation that occurred because of the division, which made Hamas fully govern the Gaza Strip since June 2007 while the Palestinian Authority governs the West Bank. Rebuilding what was destroyed by the war must come within a new framework and a new comprehensive philosophy that sweeps away all that the aggression, blockade, and division have left behind, and brings everything new at the national, social, political, and internal Palestinian relations levels, drawing inspiration from previous reconstruction experiences and the tasks that should have been carried out in advance but were not realized, in addition to addressing the distortions and losses suffered by the Palestinian economy during previous years.
The enormity of the task should be an incentive for cooperation and the establishment of a genuine partnership, not an additional cause for competition and conflict.
But there are many obstacles standing in the way of implementing the reconstruction mission, including technical obstacles and political obstacles.
The technical obstacles are evident in the enormity of the task after the cities of the Gaza Strip witnessed extensive destruction. All ministry buildings and civil, military, security, and police institutions were destroyed, as well as private homes, farms and factories, streets and vehicles, public facilities, and infrastructure—all within a relatively limited geographical area, in zones of very high population density (the highest in the world), and extreme poverty, suffering from several other problems as well. The losses caused by the war on the Gaza Strip, which continued for three weeks from 27 December 2008 until 17 January 2009, were estimated at $3 billion.
The enormity and breadth of the task make it necessary to set priorities, which is a matter of dispute as a result of the intertwined dimensions of the issue. Humanitarianly, citizens whose homes were destroyed must be housed immediately. Technically, there are many necessary procedures and steps. Likewise, in terms of coordinating the tracks, figures vary and differ in estimating the scale of losses because of the different assessment methodologies used.
There is also great concern about the issue of securing the necessary and sufficient funding, and in a timely manner. Previous experience with donor countries always points to a large gap between commitment and implementation in funding, not to mention the lack of clarity regarding the volume of funding required for reconstruction, which will be allocated and approved by donors and the international and Arab community.
It should be noted that one of the shortcomings in estimating the value of losses has been the focus on buildings without estimating other property: papers and documents, cars, furniture, jewelry, clothing, and valuable possessions of human significance, in addition to computers, systems, archives, and technical equipment in buildings belonging to governmental, civil, and non-governmental institutions—all of which must be taken into consideration.
Among the political obstacles, the issue of the crossings emerges, as Israel imposed a complete closure on the six crossings linking the Gaza Strip to the outside world, including the Rafah Crossing, which links the Gaza Strip to the Arab Republic of Egypt and is regulated by the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA), signed in October 2005 by five parties: the Palestinian Authority, Israel, the United States, Egypt, and the European Union. The Gaza Strip depends entirely on Israel for importing everything it needs. Therefore, the full opening of all the crossings is the second necessary condition for the reconstruction process, which needs construction materials and all reconstruction requirements.
The issue of reconciliation and the political situation also arises, as it has become clear that the international community will not change its declared position of not dealing with the Hamas government in Gaza. The international community adopted this position after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 and formed a government. The international community also realizes that the Palestinian Authority present only in the West Bank will not be able to implement any reconstruction projects in the Gaza Strip because of its absence there after its defeat at the hands of Hamas in the internal fighting witnessed in the Gaza Strip during 2006–2007, which ended with Hamas taking control of the reins of power in the Gaza Strip on 14 June 2007. Therefore, it is difficult for the process of reconstructing Gaza to begin under this sharp division in the Palestinian situation. Accordingly, national reconciliation represents a necessary condition for launching the reconstruction process awaited, for example and not limited to, by more than five thousand families left without shelter after their homes were totally destroyed, fifteen thousand families whose homes were partially destroyed, thousands of children who lost their breadwinners, hundreds of farmers whose farms were damaged, and about 600 factory owners whose factories were totally destroyed...
These people in particular, and Palestinians in general, look with great hope to the reconciliation efforts managed by Egypt between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and await with eagerness the Gaza Reconstruction Conference scheduled to be held in Cairo on the second of next March.
Topic: Gaza Reconstruction — post-war reconstruction · humanitarian needs · political divisions · donor aid — Text © Al Rai Media — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source