What Gazans really need is peace

Generous pledges will help ordinary Gazans, but what they really need is an end of the conflict.

US Secretary of State John Kerry talks with Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh at the Gaza donor conference in Cairo this week. Photo: Carolyn Kaster / Reuters

When the donor conference to rebuild Gaza resulted in pledges totalling $5.4 billion (Dh19.8bn), it reflected global concern for the plight of ordinary Gazans caught in the cycle of violence between Israel and Hamas. But it demonstrated even more clearly the urgent need to find a permanent solution to the occupation.

Some pessimistic predictions before Sunday’s conference in Cairo estimated that the pledges might total as little as $1.5bn, with donors balancing their sympathy for the innocents of Gaza with caution that anything rebuilt now would simply become an Israeli target when hostilities break out again. After three wars in six years and no change to Israel’s policy of making Gaza a de facto open-air prison, it would take a supreme optimist to dismiss the prospects of more carnage.

The 50 countries and 20 regional and international organisations that took part in the conference have to be commended for putting the welfare of Gazans above their well-founded concerns about how long the current ceasefire will last. What is needed, of course, is an end to the occupation and a just peace deal that allows both Israel and Palestine the prospect of co-existing with security and self-determination.

But what this series of conflagrations also made clear is that the underlying dynamic has to change: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s domestic approval ratings soared during Operation Protective Edge and only slumped when he agreed to a ceasefire. Similarly, Hamas’s waning popularity shot up when its resistance won concessions – albeit at a terrible cost for Gazans – that years of peaceful negotiations failed to achieve.

With both Mr Netanyahu and Hamas having gained from aggression, further conflict seems inescapable. Contrast this to the optimistic forecasts for Gaza that were being promoted just 10 years ago, with industries like tourism offering a bright future.

That is the kind of future that the moderates on both sides must bring to fruition, replacing the seemingly endless cycle of bloodshed, misery, resentment and revenge in place now.