THERE is an international consensus that Israeli Premier Netanyahu’s actions in the Gaza Strip are a big threat to international legal order as top two UN’s courts–The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC)—seem to have grilled the Netanyahu government regarding its culpable transgressions of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide ( CPPGC) . Foreseeably, Israel will have to bend down before the writ of international law—seeking an amicable ceasefire of the war in Gaza. Needless to say, the post-war Gaza will undergo a mammoth task of construction and rehabilitation as the Gaza Strip will need to be built from the rumbles.
A UN trade body official says “This will need a new Marshall Plan,” Richard Kozul-Wright, a Director at the UN trade body (UNCTAD), tells a UN meeting in Geneva, referring to a plan for Europe’s economic recovery after World War I1, and adding that the damage from the conflict so far amounted to around $20 billion. The former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh last month said, “We need a Marshall Plan for Gaza,” Shtayyeh told DPA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) on the fringes of the Munich Security Conference at the weekend. It is difficult to precisely quantify the damage and destruction that has been suffered in the Gaza Strip due to the cumulative nature of the impact of conflict and reconstruction needs. Damage and destruction has occurred as a direct result of the post 7 October Israeli offensives in the Strip—whose economy was already shipwrecked during the three Israeli wars in Gaza between 2008-2014.
According to a recently released report by the World Bank, about $18.5 billion will be needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip. It said that estimate was likely to rise because much remains uncertain until assessments can be made in the enclave. An impartial international partnership to raise tens of billions of dollars to rebuild the devastated Strip will need to be formed. The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the Territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 75% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. The May 24 ICJ ruling upheld the January-March world court’s provisional measures ruling, which ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
The currently exposed mass graves of children in Rafah unfold Benjamin Netanyahu’s barbarism against the Gazans —unlocking the bleakest Zionist trajectory of ethnic cleansing. Israel’s denial trajectory notwithstanding, a political reckoning will come eventually, thereby determining not only the fate of Palestinians, but also a decision about Israel’s own future as a Jewish State. In a current development, European Union Foreign Ministers have, for the first time, discussed the prospect of sanctions against Israel if it does not comply with an order from the International Court of Justice. So far, 145 UN’s member states have recognized independent status of the Palestinian State.
In the words of Ronald Lauder, President of the WJC and an ardent advocate another of a Marshall Plan for the Middle East: “Palestinian parents would have to decide whether their hatred of Israel is so strong that they would prefer their children to grow up in poverty and die as ‘martyrs’ — or share in a better economic future with their Jewish neighbours and have fuller lives and happier families.”Moreover, the Korean Times argued, ‘’in pushing ahead a New Marshall Plan for Gaza, we must carefully learn the lessons from the Bremer Plan for the reconstruction of Iraq. The scholars of CMENAF explain why in spite of the American good intentions, the Bremer Plan failed: The Iraqis themselves didn’t feel a sense of ownership; the plan encouraged nepotism and benefited the few whom the Americans liked; the heavy-handedness by the donor and investor countries was perceived as a new kind of colonialism…’’
Most importantly, linking the Gaza Strip to the West Bank poses a great challenge. The Gaza Strip is the only link to the Mediterranean for the Palestinians. At present passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is restricted. In recent years, the expansion of Israeli settlements has considerably shrunk the area where the Palestinian flag might someday fly. Moreover, the G7 Japan 2023 Foreign Ministers’ Statement said, “The rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians is unacceptable, undermines security in the West Bank and threatens prospects for a lasting peace’’.
The current situation is highly pathetic given the harrowing devastation of Gaza’s civilian, environmental health and educational infrastructures. Nevertheless, a Marshall Plan for Gaza has a chance to succeed because it will serve several utilitarian interests: The desire of Gazans to be rescued from their current miserable situation; the wish of Israel to see on its border a base for nation-building rather than a nest of terror; the quest of moderate Arab states for stability in the region and, most importantly, the economic interests of outside players accompanied by the opportunity for President Joe Biden to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
And above all, the Gazans’ appeal for a genuine reconstruction equally echoes in the streets of global South and- North- challenging prevailing western narratives that perpetuate colonial violence and destruction and yet it is not Gaza that is in need of repair, but the world whose order is in disarray as amid the heart of the siege, the resilient people of Gaza stand resurrected while forging the resolve: Here, they emerge as masonries of the foundations of a new world order.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
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