Palestinian officials at the World Economic Forum in Davos say they’ve effectively been frozen out of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace.
Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority’s permanent observer to the UN in Geneva, said there has been no contact with the administration since last year.
The names of key members have trickled out in recent days, while Mr Trump is due to announce more about its duties on Thursday.
“Palestine should be there, and the Palestinian leadership should be there,” the ambassador told The National.
The US government stopped President Mahmoud Abbas from attending the UN General Assembly last summer, and there has been virtually no contact since the Gaza ceasefire in Egypt in October, Mr Khraishi said.
“But we hope that this board is going to be helpful in a way,” he said.
Regional representation
The veteran diplomat said he was encouraged that a number of Arab leaders are to serve on the board.
“Egypt is going to be [on the board], and Qatar, the Emirates, also Turkey from the region. From Europe, it’s still not clear.
“We are encouraging of any platform that can defend and preserve international law.”
Also speaking in Davos, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said that it was vital that more temporary shelters were created in Gaza and that “as much humanitarian aid as possible” was brought in.
He said that the Palestinian Authority was “working hard” with the EU and other outside institutions on reconstruction plans.
“We have detailed plans ready for early recovery work and reconstruction,” Mr Mustafa said at a discussion session at the WEF gathering.
“We have already started to work with United Nations Development Programme and the government of Germany and the government of Norway to revamp the institutions in Gaza.”
Securing the future
Plans to reintegrate Gaza with the occupied West Bank were already formulated, Mr Mustafa said. However, he warned that security in the Palestinian enclave would remain a major concern, pointing out that more than 450 Gazans had been killed since the ceasefire came into operation.
“The role of the countries in the region is very critical in the security aspect and also the political aspect,” he said.
Mr Mustafa repeated criticism he made following a donor conference in Brussels in November, over Israel’s withholding of tax revenues earmarked for the Palestinian Authority, a practice spearheaded by Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich.
This comes at a time when Palestinians are facing, he said, “by far” their biggest ever economic crisis, with unemployment running at 34 per cent in the West Bank and 85 per cent in Gaza.
“Every aspect of our lives has been affected by this but our people will get out of this stronger,” said Mr Mustafa. “Our people are very resilient, very determined and we still have good friends around the world that believe in international law, believe in justice, believe in dignity.
“I want to say a big thank you to all our partners and all our people, especially our people in Gaza.”
He also said that the Palestinian Authority was ahead of schedule on a detailed 60-point reform programme, with more than half already completed, despite headwinds.
“We hope the reform programme will be empowered and supported,” he said. “You usually cannot make reform under these conditions, but we are making extra effort to show we are serious about this … We are committed to continuing our reform agenda, but we expect Israel to do its part.
“It’s hard to reform when your employees don’t get paid because Israel withholds money … You cannot do reform when the banking system is subjected to systemic efforts to make it collapse.”
