Mick Hartley

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib talks to a Palestinian economist about the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza:

Motivated to serve his people and country, the economist shared with me that the World Bank’s James Wolfensohn spent his own money to preserve Gaza’s greenhouses and to implement extensive plans to protect what remained of the infrastructure left behind in the vacated Jewish settlements. He mentioned meeting with Hamas to inform them about what the plans and intentions were, but the terror group was ultimately determined to pursue its own course of action. After years of violent attacks during the Second Intifada, Hamas was determined to promote the armed resistance narrative as the reason why Israel was withdrawing from Gaza.

The economist, who again is not exactly a dove on Israel, said repeatedly during our conversations that in his talks with Israelis, he sensed “a sincerity” to see Gaza progress and develop, and that Israelis’ attitude was “we don’t want anything from you Palestinians except for you to succeed.” He spoke of incredible plans to spend billions on reviving Gaza’s economy, connecting the territory with the outside world and Israel, and of endless possibilities that would have “transformed Gaza into something truly remarkable,” as he and [Mohammed] Dahlan said and believed.

Instead, the very day of the withdrawal, he said numerous militias belonging to Hamas were deployed in a disciplined, pre-determined, and militaristic fashion across all vacated Israeli settlements. Worse, he said that Palestinian Authority security personnel tasked with protecting remnants of Israeli settlements participated in the mass looting and destruction of what remained, ending any hope that these spaces would ever serve as springboards for Gaza’s rejuvenation and renaissance. It was then that he called Mohammed Dahlan and told him: “It’s all over – Gaza’s finished.” The 2005 disengagement experiment was a horrific abdication of Palestinian agency and responsibility and a missed opportunity that cannot be solely blamed on Israel. That’s the painful and uncomfortable lesson.

Cannot be blamed in any way on Israel, more like – but the Palestinian narrative is all about the weaponisation of victimhood.