Donors pledge money – and demand end to causes of destruction

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, front centre, is joined by Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh second front right, and France Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, front right, and Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos, second front left, as they pose for a group photo with other Gaza Donor Conference attendees (and Tony Blair in case they didn’t recognise him) in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014.  Photo by Carolyn Kaster, AP / Pool

Gaza: rebuilding the house of cards

Summary: a donor conference in Cairo more than met the Palestinian request for $4 billion to rebuild after the devastation of the recent war; no progress on preventing the next one.

From WAND [Web Arab News Digest]
October 13, 2014

Yesterday, 12 October, Egypt hosted a conference to raise $4 billion sought by the Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for Gaza reconstruction following the recent war which left much of Gaza in ruins. The total pledged was $5.4 billion, including one billion from Qatar, $570 million from the EU, $212 million from the USA, and $200 million each from Kuwait and the UAE. Saudi Arabia had pledged $500 million in advance of the conference. Russia (though a member of the Quartet) and China do not appear to have pledged. The Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende who co-chaired the conference with Egypt said that half would be dedicated to Gaza reconstruction. Reports suggest that the other half will go to boosting economic activity, emergency relief and other projects.

Given the likelihood that Gaza will be devastated again by war sooner rather than later there must be some unreality about these pledges, as the donors are well aware. Neither of the adversaries in the recent war, Israel and Hamas, was directly represented at the conference, and the two have still only reached a provisional ceasefire agreement. All or most speakers referred to the need for a peace settlement. According to some Israeli and other reports (not confirmed in Egyptian reports such as the summary in Al Ahram) the Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi called for a revival of the Arab Peace Initiative, (proposed in 2002, ignored by the US and rejected by Israel).

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will go to Gaza tomorrow 14 October,recalled how in 2009 the international community gathered in Sharm al-Shaikh in the wake of an earlier devastating war in Gaza. “We pledged our support. We expressed our commitment. We resolved to rebuild. And yet here we are again. The cycle of building and destroying has continued– only worse.” The reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah reached in Cairo on 25 September was a promising first step for which he pledged UN support. But “Gaza remains a tinderbox.”

In his opening remarks Børge Brende said :

Yes, it is understandable that journalists and tax payers alike are asking why donor countries should – once again – pick up the bill for rebuilding what warring parties have torn down. In the same vein, donor country authorities are justified in questioning the unsatisfactory basis on which to pledge their support. These are indeed legitimate questions in the absence of agreement on a lasting ceasefire and a sound political framework.

The answer is still the same. We simply do not have the time to wait for the stars to align. The people of Gaza cannot be held hostage to negotiations that may, or may not, produce the desired outcome. Letting Gaza fester while leaving the parties to their own devices is the surest way of setting ourselves up for another round of war a year or two down the road.
Having said that, let me be absolutely clear:

This is not an invitation to take the untiring commitment of donors for granted. Nor should it encourage any sense of complacency on the eve of continued proxy negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian factions being mediated by Egypt. The missing political framework is urgently needed, and our message to all parties involved is clear: There is no more time to lose.

Norwegian Prime Minister Borge Brende with John Kerry and Catherine Ashton at the Cairo conference.

Donors pledge $2.7 billion for Gaza reconstruction

Associated Press
October 12, 2014

CAIRO — Donors at an international conference Sunday promised $2.7 billion to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, but all of the key participants said their efforts would be futile without a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

U.S.-mediated talks broke down this summer before the 50-day war between Hamas and Israel began — the third since 2008 — and it remains unclear how peace can come about.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, who co-chaired the one-day meeting with Egypt, said pledges of $5.4 billion have been made, but that only half of that money would be “dedicated” to the reconstruction of the coastal strip.

Brende did not say what the other half of the funds would be spent on. Other delegates have spoken of budgetary support, boosting economic activity, emergency relief and other projects.

“The message was clear to the international community that the Palestinian brothers are not alone,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri told a news conference after the meeting.

Qatar offered the biggest donation of $1 billion — once again using its vast wealth to reinforce its role as a regional player. The United Arab Emirates — a Gulf Arab rival of Qatar — promised $200 million.

The pledges followed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement of immediate American assistance of $212 million. The European Union pledged 450 million euros ($568 million), while Turkey, which has been playing a growing regional role, said it was donating $200 million.

Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, in announcing his country’s pledge, denounced the “international silence” that surrounded Gaza’s destruction.

“While the Palestinian people need financial support, they need more political support from the international community,” he said. “A just peace is the only real guarantee for not destroying what we are about to rebuild and reconstruct.”

Delegates representing about 50 nations and 20 regional and international organizations applauded the pledge by Qatar. The Emirates and Saudi Arabia, however, allege that Qatar is using its wealth to undermine regional stability, primarily through meddling in other nations’ affairs and aiding militant Islamic groups.

Conference organizers hope the pledges will be paid over a three-year period to aid reconstruction in Gaza, which borders Israel and Egypt. Both countries have blockaded Gaza since Hamas took power there in 2007, causing the territory of 1.8 million people economic hardship and high unemployment.

Donors plan to funnel the aid through Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, bypassing Hamas. Abbas and Hamas recently formed a national unity government, and its deputy prime minister, Mohammed Mustafa, acknowledged there would difficulties for the funds to arrive quickly and be appropriated.

The Western-backed Abbas told the delegates that the latest Gaza war caused “tragedies that are difficult to be described by words. … Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.”

He said the Palestinian government “will carry out the reconstruction plan with full responsibility and transparency in coordination with the U.N., the donors, international financial institutions, civil society and the private sector.”

Leading participants said Gaza’s reconstruction cannot be done in isolation from efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on a lasting settlement.

“We must not lose sight of the root causes of the recent hostilities: A restrictive occupation that has lasted almost half a century, the continued denial of Palestinian rights and the lack of tangible progress in peace negotiations,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who later announced he would visit Gaza on Tuesday.

The latest conflict in Gaza was the most ruinous of the three wars, killing more than 2,000 Palestinians — mostly civilians, the U.N. said. Another 11,000 were wounded, and some 100,000 people are homeless.

Kerry told delegates that Gazans “need our help desperately — not tomorrow, not next week, but they need it now.” He said the new U.S. money, which nearly doubles American aid to the Palestinians this year, would go to security, economic development, food and medicine, and shelter, water and sanitation projects.

He later stressed at a news conference the need to move beyond aid by addressing the underlying causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Israel clearly has a right to be deeply concerned about rockets and tunnels, and security of its citizens,” he said. “And Palestinians have a right to be concerned about day-to-day life and their rights and their future aspirations to have a state.”

Kerry mediated the failed peace negotiations earlier this year. He said the talks had made “significant progress” in some areas and left everyone with a clear picture of what both sides need for a peace agreement.

“We are going to continue to push,” Kerry said without elaborating.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, whose government negotiated the cease-fire that ended the war, said the reconstruction effort hinged on a “permanent calm” between Hamas and Israel, and required the exercise of “full authority” by the Palestinian Authority led by Abbas.

Cairo’s relations with Hamas have been tense since Egypt’s military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 and threw its weight behind Abbas.

El-Sissi said the conference sent a message that “the status quo must not continue, cannot be returned to, and that any attempt to bring about temporary stability will not last long.”

Abbas used the conference to warn that the failure to reach a peace deal posed a threat to regional stability.

“Israel’s aggression on the Gaza Strip exposed the fragility and dangerous nature of the situation in our region in the absence of a just peace,” Abbas said. He urged the international community to support his bid to get the U.N. Security Council to dictate the ground rules for any future talks with Israel, including a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands.

EU negotiator Catherine Ashton appeared to back the arguments of Ban, Abbas and el-Sissi.

“I want to stress one more time that the solution for Gaza cannot be found in Gaza alone,” she said. “Only a credible resumption of the peace negotiations can allow for a durable solution to the current crisis.

“This must be the last time in which the international community is called upon to rebuild Gaza,” she added.