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Will the $5.4 billion pledged for Gaza reconstruction materialize?

Crescent International

About 30 envoys from different countries plus UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were in Cairo to mobilize resources for Gaza's reconstruction. Although $5.4 billion were pledged, will this materialize and if so, what conditions would be imposed on the Palestinians?

Cairo, Crescent-online
Sunday October 12, 2014, 19:28 DST

Representatives of donor countries meeting in Cairo today pledged $5.4 billion for Gaza’s reconstruction following Israel’s brutal war on the enclave in July and August.

“The participants pledged approximately $5.4 billion,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Boerge Brende, who co-hosted the Cairo conference with Egypt.

The Palestinian delegation headed by Mahmoud Abbas had asked for $4 billion. The conference came about as part of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel brokered by Egypt last August.

Prior to the conference, the Palestinian side unveiled a 76-page reconstruction plan. Much of the funding would go to rebuilding houses destroyed by the zionists not only during this war but the previous two wars as well (December 2008-January 2009 and November 2012).

Palestinian Authority leader Abbas said Gaza's need was desperate. “Gaza has suffered three wars in six years. Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed,” he said.

Zionist Israel launched its latest onslaught on Gaza in part because of last June’s unity agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Under the deal, Hamas relinquished control of Gaza Strip to the PA although it is unclear whether the PA has the wherewithal to manage the besieged strip. Israel wants to keep the Palestinians divided and weak.

Qatar was by far the largest donor pledging $1 billion through its foreign minister Khalid al-Attiyah. Other pledges were as follows: the European Union ($570 million); the US ($212 million); Germany ($60 million) and Norway ($13 million).

Among the 30 envoys from different countries and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Zionist regime was not invited. It would have been an insult to the memory of thousands of Palestinians murdered by the brutal regime.

Several questions, however, remained unclear: would the pledges materialize and if so, under what conditions? Even if all pledges are honored, how much of it would actually go to help the poor Palestinians rather than lining up the pockets of PA officials that are notorious for their corruption?

Already US Secretary of State John Kerry pressed the Palestinians and Israel to renew peace talks. He also said “tough choices” have to be made, meaning the Palestinians have to surrender most of their rights.

The so-called peace talks between the Zionists and the Palestinians since the Oslo Accords of 1991 have yielded no results because of the Zionists’ ass-like stubbornness.

Instead, they have continued with the illegal settlement activity where Zionist squatters from North America and Europe forcibly evict Palestinians from their land and build homes for themselves.

In addition to killing thousands of Palestinians in successive attacks on the tiny Gaza Strip, the Zionist regime also holds more than 6,000 Palestinians in jail without charge or trial.

They are held under what is euphemistically referred to as “administrative detention.” This is merely a play on words to soften the blow of illegal detention of Palestinians.

Under this, the Zionists kidnap Palestinians from their homes and hold them initially for a period of six months. A military commander then extends this period for another six months and on it goes.

Some Palestinians have been held under this monstrous policy for five or even 10 years.

Regarding Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, their plight is grim. Unless both Israel and Egypt lift the siege, the people of Gaza will continue to suffer huge deprivations.

There is no indication whether either of them is about to lift the illegal siege that has been imposed since June 2007.

END


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