It is natural for Palestinians to be skeptical of any proposal to rebuild Gaza or to protect their rights in the Occupied Territories. But the plans unveiled last week by Jared Kushner through the “Board of Peace” could offer a new route to a stronger Palestinian presence in the coastal Strip.
Although Israel will continue to impose its security on besieged Palestinian civilians, as it is intent on identifying and eliminating Hamas militants, Kushner’s scheme could result in a pathway to a better life.
Two key goals need to be achieved to make this work. The first is the elimination of Hamas and the second is the placement of restraints on Israel. Both are necessary to remove violence from the territory and permit the descendants of Palestinian refugees from the unresolved 1947-48 war to possibly find a generational period of growth.
While some assert that roadblocks will emerge from the inevitable growth of resistance stemming from the horrendous suffering and Palestinian loss of life, the more realistic roadblocks will come from Israel’s government, which has always been in control of life in Gaza.
Israel controls the borders and the flow of food, electricity, water and reconstruction materials. As Israel has shown year after year since 1967, it also determines the level of violence that will exist.
Israel’s brutality has taken the lives of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians without any accountability
Ray Hanania
In the years prior to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, Israel engaged in repeated assaults targeting alleged militants — military violence that resulted in the death of far more civilians than Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters.
The greater the violence, the stronger the foundation for a continued presence of both militant organizations and public sympathy.
Israel’s brutality has taken the lives of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians without any accountability. Old men, women and children of all ages have been killed, some intentionally by Israeli military snipers.
While Israel’s government has repeatedly asserted its goal is to wipe out the presence of Hamas in Gaza, the real agenda has always been to push Palestinians out of as much as the Strip as possible so that it can build Jewish-only settlements there.
Genocide comes in many forms — often through violence and military action, but also through forced relocation. Palestinians face this threat not only in Gaza but also the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In 2019, Kushner failed in his efforts to implement a vaguely defined “Peace to Prosperity” plan, in part because no real effort was made to include Palestinians. I was the only Palestinian journalist to attend the Bahrain launch of that initiative and I had to push Kushner to answer my questions, after he generously spoke with many Israeli journalists.
Ironically, the plan seemed to exclude not only Palestinian voices but also concern for the Palestinians. It appeared designed to satisfy the needs of the Israeli government and its apartheid policies.
The Board of Peace and the implementation of plans to reverse Gaza’s destruction make up the second attempt to get it right. But if not done properly and with a genuine desire to give the needs of Palestinians the same priority as has been consistently given to Israel’s needs, it will only result in another failure. And failure would mean more violence.
You could eliminate Hamas as a militant organization today, wiping it out and killing its leaders. But unless there is a genuine effort to address the needs of Palestinians, you cannot erase the foundation of hate that comes from the unparalleled suffering Israel has heaped on the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank.
If Palestinian needs are not given the same priority as Israel’s, the plan will only result in another failure
Ray Hanania
The real obstacle to achieving peace is not any Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel’s “right to exist,” it is the Israeli refusal to do the same for Palestine. Every Israeli policy today is designed to erase Palestinian identity on every possible level — national, societal and legal — to the point of extinguishing Palestinians’ existence.
Israel uses public relations spin and clever and effective propaganda to counter these realities, such as claiming that Israel is protecting Christians from Muslim violence. But I am Christian and, over the past 70 years, I have seen my family abused and brutalized by Israel. Our lands have been either confiscated or locked up by Israeli policies that favor Jews and undermine our rights.
Israel confiscated part of my family’s 30 acres of land to create the illegal settlement of Gilo in 1970, with just 9 acres remaining. As one Israeli official told me, the leftover land has been “frozen” because, unlike many other Palestinians who became doctors, engineers or lawyers, I chose journalism as my career, giving my Christian Palestinian family a voice that challenges Israel’s propaganda.
The only people I see fighting for genuine peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians are liberal Israeli Jews, progressive Western Jews, Arab countries and their sympathetic populations, and Palestinians who rise above the constant suffering and refuse to give up on the hope that a nonviolent, peaceful resolution to the conflict is possible.
That group is the segment that needs to be reinforced and supported. That is the community Kushner needs to work with to bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians alike.
The Board of Peace and the plan to rebuild Gaza need the participation and voices of strong, courageous Palestinians if they are to be successful. Otherwise, we will return to bloodshed. The violence may be on pause for now, but without change it will return with even greater destructive force.
BY: Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect The Times Union‘ point of view
