Netanyahu’s Gaza plan

Late on Thursday [February 22, 2024], Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed his proposal for the “Day after Hamas” to the War Cabinet for the first time. The plan for post-war Gaza includes “demilitarization” of the enclave, control of the Palestinian territories and the closure of the aid organization UNRWA.

Netanyahu had previously cancelled the war cabinet’s discussions on the Gaza plans, leading to “significant pressure” from government partners and international leaders to sharpen the plans, especially as ceasefire talks are currently underway and protests demanding the release of the hostages in Israel are expanding.

Netanjahu, Gallant, Ganz. Credit: ALJAZEERA

Israel’s war cabinet decides on all matters related to the ongoing war and its termination. The cabinet includes Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition representative Benny Ganz as regular members, and Ron Dermer and Gadi Eizenkot as observer members, but not the far-right ministers of the governing coalition. The cabinet is under great external and internal pressure due to the Gazan humanitarian crisis and the release of hostages related to the ceasefire negotiations. The former head of the armed forces Eizenkot states directly “I think it is necessary to say boldly that it is impossible to get the hostages back alive in the near future without an agreement”.

Netanyahu’s “plan”

In Netanyahu’s plan, the IDF will continue fighting with the goal of destroying the military assets and regime infrastructure of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and preventing them from posing a future threat. In addition, Israel continues to bring hostages home.

In the second, mid-term phase, Israel maintains freedom of action in the Gaza Strip. Israel is working with Egypt and the United States to ensure that arms smuggling from Egypt to Gaza ends and that the Gaza Strip is demilitarised. Israel seeks to strengthen Gazan’s “civilian administration” based on “local individuals with administrative experience and no ties to countries or organisations that support terrorism.”

Netanyahu’s plan talks about the need to “de-radicalize all religious, educational and welfare institutions in the Gaza Strip.” This would also include shutting down UNRWA and replacing it with other international welfare organisations.

In the long term, Netanyahu “completely rejects the international dictates of a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.” Possible arrangements can only be reached in direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions. Accordingly, Israel remains opposed to the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

The IDF is expected to launch a pilot program in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, where local civilians – including merchants and civil society leaders – will take over the administration of the area from Hamas. The civil authority managing the new administration aims to take responsibility for, among other things, the distribution of humanitarian aid, a large part of which currently ends up in the hands of Hamas.

Netanyahu as part of the problem and not necessarily its solution

Netanyahu has a big personal problem formulating a “day after the war” vision or strategy due to different domestic and foreign political visions and the personal need to stay in power. Netanyahu’s finance minister, coalition partner Bezalel Smotrich, has said that the Palestinians should move out of Gaza, and his attitude towards Israel’s Arab population has not been very favourable. In recent weeks, far-right Interior/Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has tightened his rhetoric against the war cabinet, warning that he would not be a rubber stamp for the policies he opposes. The disintegration of the government could lead to early elections, which Netanyahu would clearly lose according to opinion polls.

In the past, going back to his Bar Ilan speech in 2009 and then Trump’s peace plan, Netanyahu has cautiously embraced the principle of a demilitarised Palestinian state. Forging such approval now is more difficult because of his far-right government partners.

Epilogue

It is not known whether a more detailed version of Netanyahu’s “plan” is in use by the war cabinet and the government, and if so, whether the versions differ from each other. It can also be about presenting the starting points of the negotiation arrangement in the direction of foreign powers, the political wing of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. As such, I consider Netanyahu’s initiative to be very narrow-minded, in my view, it lacks a vision and scenarios for improving the living conditions of Gazans and, more broadly, Palestinians, not to mention the Two-State model.

Netanyahu’s “plan” does not respond in any positive way to the “Day After War” plans currently being considered in the United States and several Arab countries, in which one of the central parts is the solution of the Palestinian issue as part of the normalisation of Arab countries’ relations with Israel.

I have covered the matter in the article A Day After the Gaza War -Plan where I propose three level plan in order to solve the humanitarian crisis of the Gazans immediately, to rebuild the destroyed Palestinian territory in the medium term and to implement the Two-State solution in the long term. I also have made a new Road-map to 2-State solution .

Sources include BICOM, TheNewArab

A Day After the Gaza War by Ariel Rusila

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The article first appeared in the online web publication Ariel-Israelista suomeksi

Israel Daily News – War Day 138 February 21, 2024

The Saudi Tent City Could Serve as a Model for the Gaza Refugee Camp

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is becoming even more difficult after the Israeli army extended its war against Hamas south to Khan Younis and plans to attack the last intact Hamas underground bases in Rafah. The international community, including the United States, has demanded that Israel protect Gazan civilians when the attack begins on a larger scale soon. The civilian population that moved to the south has previously been offered a safe zone in the Al-Mawas area on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Relief for the plight of Gazan civilians may also be found on the Egyptian side.

Since the beginning of the war, Egypt has tried to strengthen its own security at the border to keep the Palestinians out, by sending soldiers and armored vehicles and strengthening border fences. Now, however, The Wall Street Journal has obtained satellite images, which show that concrete walls have been erected in the area intended as a refugee camp. Satellite images taken in 4.-14. February show that the ground in the area has also been cleared. According to WSJ information, the Egyptian refugee camp is being prepared in case of an Israeli ground attack. Egyptian local authorities deny this.

According to unconfirmed information, it is an area of about eight square miles or 20.7 square kilometers on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza.

The Mina Valley is located 8 kilometers southeast of the city of Mecca in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia and is commonly known as the “City of Tents”. In Mina, the largest tent city in the world has been built on an area of about 20 km2 – so comparable in size to the refugee camp that is apparently being built on the Egyptian side – and it can accommodate up to three million pilgrims in more than 100,000 air-conditioned tents.

Background and video from this link

 

The tents themselves come in three sizes: eight square meters, six x eight meters or 12 x eight meters. The tents are connected to each other through paved, lighted and signposted corridors. 9,000 standard and electric wheelchairs have been reserved for pilgrims who need them.

In Mina’s tent city, you can find all the basic comforts of living, and in addition, air conditioning and modern means of communication are available. In addition to water and electricity, each tent has automatic fire sprinklers. The streets are equipped with multilingual street signs and service shops and clinics have been established in all areas. Other services include Masjid al-Khayfi’s 20,000 m2 mosque, which is the largest in Mina’s tent city.

In the past, pilgrims came to Mecca with their own tents, often made of cotton, and this caused a fire hazard. Now the tents are made of fiberglass, while the outer surface is Teflon. The new tent fabric has a lifespan of 25 years and can help protect against fire, wind, corrosion and also has an anti-slip surface. Its structure is easy to change, and the sunlight filter in the material keeps out about 90 percent of the sun’s rays.

Each subcamp is equipped with a kitchens, bathrooms and washing facilities, and they are connected to other camps by trails. The tents are also marked with unique color and number pairs to make them more recognizable.

For most of the year, Mina’s tent city is empty and it has been considered in the past, for example, as a place to stay for Syrian refugees; However, Saudi Arabia did not want to take refugees there. This will probably be the situation even now, even if all Gazans could be accommodated there even immediately. However, Mina’s experiences are useful for the Gazans, whether the location is in Gaza or on the Egyptian side.

In order to solve the humanitarian crisis of the Gazans immediately, to rebuild the devastated Palestinian territory in the medium term, and to implement a two-state solution in the long term, I published in early January a three-phase  A Day After the Gaza War  plan that I consider both pragmatic and feasible. The mentioned presentation is based on the implementation of the so-called Sinai option, the first step of which was the construction of a temporary refugee camp on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border. If the first phase of the plan is being implemented, it also creates a good basis for the next two phases.

If a refugee camp is built for the Gazans, it should be made permanent like Mina’s tent city. If a more permanent urban settlement for the Gazans is (re-)built in either Gaza or Sinai, the tent city would be ready to receive new groups of refugees from different regions, or it could also serve as a temporary reception center for asylum seekers seeking Western countries. The use of the area should naturally be agreed with Egypt with appropriate compensations.

As a source, for example: Wikipedia , Gulf, cctv 

UNRWA support for Hamas waning [Op-Ed]

“We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza.” [Foreign Minister Israel Katz]

Israeli Jews hold placards against the UNRWA in Jerusalem on Monday, February 5, 2024. Photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI

UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is a United Nations organization established on December 8, 1949, which is responsible for Palestine refugees. UNRWA is one of the largest organizations of the United Nations, providing relief, health and education assistance to the so-called Palestinian refugees.

Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and several other European countries announced they were suspending funding for UNRWA after it was revealed that some of its staff were directly involved in the massacre on October 7, by taking hostages or distributing ammunition. The report was based on Israeli and US intelligence, including cell phone location tracking and intercepted phone conversations. Some UNRWA workers also recorded their exploits in videos they circulated. In total, around 190 UNRWA staff are estimated to be Hamas or Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants, around 1,200 staff have ties to Hamas, and thousands of other staff are close to members of terrorist groups in Gaza.

According to the current decisions, UNRWA’s funding will run out by the beginning of March 2024. Finland is one of the organization’s 20 largest financiers, and still in accordance with its programs, Finland’s general support to UNRWA is €5 million as of 2019. The situation is in no way surprising, because according to Israeli Foreign Minister Katz, “we have been warning for years: UNRWA continues the refugee issue, prevents peace and acts as the civilian branch of Hamas in Gaza.”

UNRWA has provided food, medicine and social and other services to Palestinians for decades. Unfortunately, UNRWA has never taken steps to prevent aid to extremist groups; in some cases it has openly collaborated with terrorists.

Hamas can direct UNWRA’s international funds, for example for food or electricity, to store weapons and create propaganda against Israel or the USA.

There have been widespread reports of terrorism in UNRWA-controlled areas, including sniper attacks on UNRWA-run schools, bomb and weapons factories in UNRWA camps, transport of terrorists to their target areas in UNRWA ambulances, and even UNRWA workers directly involved to terrorist attacks against civilians.

Hate education and training of child soldiers

The New York Times revealed in 2000 that UNRWA allowed Hamas to use its schools as “summer camps” so that 25,000 Palestinian children could receive paramilitary training, including instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails and roadside bombs.

Hate education has been practiced in UNRWA schools for decades and grade by grade with the support of school-age Palestinian Authority study programs and textbooks. This indoctrination and the continuous comprehensive repetition of the Palestinian narrative from generation to generation makes peaceful coexistence with the Israelis very difficult and slow to achieve.

In a recent report on UNRWA’s textbooks, in addition to the educational materials, examples are also given of how UNRWA’s teachers and other employees praise 7/10 genocides on social media. For its part, Finland has supported this activity not only through UNRWA, but also by being the main financier of the Palestinian Authority’s school system, study programs and textbooks. Finland’s liaison office in Ramallah monitors and supervises the use of funds also on site.

In the past, it has already become clear that Hamas has turned the Gaza Strip into a huge military training camp for jihadist warriors, in which approx. 17,000 Palestinian boys aged 15-21 have participated. The training includes the handling of various weapons and explosives and motivation to eliminate Israel. At children’s summer camps supported by UNRWA, young children are taught war games and handling weapons in addition to radicalism. David Bedein, head of the Center for Near East Policy Research, has found out how UNRWA schools shape children into Gaza’s “civilian army.” The research institute points out that UNRWA states on its own website that the curricula are decided by Hamas and that military training is part of the curriculum.

In terms of higher education, it should also be mentioned that The Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) is a radical Islamist institution that has been a base of Hamas since its inception. At the university, Hamas engages in political, ideological and military activities and used the IUG’s laboratories, students and lecturers to develop and manufacture weapons, including long-range rockets. IUG has enjoyed EU support for many years, as evidenced by the university’s integration into EU-funded projects and student and teacher exchanges, even though the EU considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Along with UNRWA and the EU, it has also been supported by UNICEF, WHO and UNDP.

UN refugee organizations

The UN has two separate refugee organizations: the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, UNRWA. UNRWA was established in December 1949 and UNHCR in December 1950. With the establishment of UNHCR, UNRWA became unnecessary and its existence was unfounded. However, it was not disbanded, and the two agencies continue to exist side by side with a clear division of labor: UNHCR is responsible for all refugees around the world except Palestinians, and UNRWA is responsible only for Palestinian refugees.

Most so-called “Palestinian refugees” are not refugees as defined by the International Refugee Standard as “Internally Displaced Persons” (IDPs), because they did not leave their country in 1948, but were displaced within it. As for the 2.2 “Palestinian refugees” in Jordan, they are also not refugees because they received Jordanian citizenship. UNHCR would not recognize them as refugees because they are citizens of their country of residence.

UNHCR and UNRWA therefore define refugees in different ways. In 1948, there were approximately 700,000 Palestinian refugees. According to UNRWA, there are now 5.4 million. This exponential growth is due to UNRWA automatically applying refugee status to all patrilineal descendants of 1948 refugees, regardless of their status and country of residence.

UNRWA also handles its statistics in a creative way. Lebanon’s most recent census found that two-thirds of the refugees listed in UNRWA reports were simply fictitious. UNRWA has an interest in increasing the numbers – it’s good business because UNRWA’s budget per refugee in 2016 was four times higher than UNHCR’s: $246 compared to $58.

UNHCR looks for “permanent or durable solutions” to the plight of refugees, including “local integration” and “resettlement” and after doing this, moves to some other crisis center in the world. UNRWA does the opposite.

UNRWA provides assistance in Gaza, it provides direct financial and material support to the terrorist organization Hamas.

Although the Palestinians benefit from UNRWA, the organization benefits more from the refugees it “creates” because they are the foundation of the organization’s existence. Thus, UNRWA has no incentive to solve the Palestinian refugee problem, its termination would make the agency redundant.

The interests of the refugees and UNRWA are so intertwined that UNRWA is staffed mainly by local Palestinians – more than 23,000 – and only around 100 international UN professionals. While UNHCR and UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Fund) avoid employing locals who are also recipients of agency services, UNRWA does not make this distinction.

Along with hate training and training of Hamas child soldiers, UNRWA has faced several scandals. During the 2014 Gaza war, rockets were found in UNRWA schools and in at least one case were returned to Hamas. In 2019, UNRWA Director Pierre Krähenbühl resigned amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, abuse of power and suppression of dissent. Three major European donors (Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium) announced within a few days of the publication of the 2019 corruption scandal that they had stopped funding UNRWA. A month later, New Zealand did the same. As a result of the scandal, UNRWA Deputy Director Sandra Mitchell and Chief of Staff Hakam Shahwan resigned.

Conclusions

Israeli Protesters hold placards as they demonstrate outside the UNRWA offices, in Jerusalem February 5, 2024. (photo credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)

US President Trump once cut funding to UNRWA, while President Biden restored it. A number of reforms to UNRWA’s operations were made conditional on US funding. These reforms include combating anti-Semitism and incitement in the curriculum, ensuring the impartiality of staff, and ensuring that UNRWA facilities and staff are not used for the activities of terrorist organizations. The continuation of hate education, the 7/10 terror and the military facilities found in Gaza’s schools, hospitals and mosques dashed hopes for reforms.

UNRWA is part of the problem and not part of the solution. The agency handles the refugee issue politically in a way that distances possible future solutions. The international community should find a new model for delivering humanitarian aid to those who really need it.

Personally, I would see that UNRWA could well be abolished. The 30,000 or so local workers who do its humanitarian work – at least formally – could well be transferred – excluding those belonging to the military wing of Hamas – to the Palestinian Authority’s health, education and welfare sectors. What about the so-called to the Palestinian refugees, it was good to finally integrate them to their current locations, for example, through the relatively efficiently functioning UN refugee organization UNHCR. The current acute humanitarian crisis can also be facilitated by the UN Development Program (UNDP) and other organizations relatively quickly.

My previous writings on the topic include:

• YK pidätti UNRWAn johtajan virastaan 
• UNRWA:n eettinen haaksirikko [Op-Ed]
• Israeli Vs Palestine Refugees – In, Out and No Return
• Yli 80% Palestiinalaisista kannattaa 7/10 joukkotuhontaa: Osasyynä Suomenkin tuki vihakoulutukseen
• EU rajoittamassa Palestiinalaishallinnon vihakoulutuksen rahoittamista
• Palestiinalaisten uudet oppikirjat jopa aiempaa vihamielisempiä
• Hamasin kesäleirin ”rauhankasvatusta”
• Lasten vihakoulutus jatkuu Gazassa
• YK:n tukema lapsisotilaiden [viha]koulutus Gazassa uhkaa supistua
• Erilaiset nukkeleikit
• Hamasin terrorileirit nuorisolle

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The Finnish version of this article first appeared in the online publication of Ariel-Israelista suomeksi.