My Right Word: NGOs/UN Hinder Gaza Development

Monday, August 22, 2016

NGOs/UN Hinder Gaza Development

In a review of post-disengagement Gaza, 11 years on, we read this about the area which was under Israeli cultivation and which is now referred to by the local Arab residents as “the liberated areas” which they had been "deprived of":_

The pertinent question, however, is how Palestinians might take advantage of and invest in these liberated areas. When traveling to the former Israeli settlements across the Gaza Strip, one sees largely untapped areas, save for a few residential projects carried out by international institutions, even though the Israeli withdrawal took place over a decade ago.

The Palestinian Land Authority (PLA) in the Gaza Strip is the government agency concerned with the lands. Amal Shimali, the head of the PLA's public relations and media office, told Al-Monitor, “The total of the liberated areas amounts to 5,000 dunums, where some international parties such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the United Nations Development Program implemented housing projects, in addition to other similar projects for Palestinians funded by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Qatar.”
...Political analyst Akram Atallah told Al-Monitor...the liberated areas revealed a lack of experience on the part of the Palestinians in terms of optimizing the use of available resources. 'These lands are certainly not for distribution as they belong to the future generation of Gazans and serve as a strategic reserve,” he said.
He added, “However, these lands ought to be cultivated appropriately, especially since Gaza’s food basket

...For his part, economist Moin Rajab blames the PLA for not being able to properly manage these lands.
“These liberated areas are ostensibly public lands...Gazans ought to be taking advantage of these landscapes...However, following the Israeli withdrawal, some random and hasty projects were set up,” Rajab said.
He added, “The [available] area of the lands is gradually decreasing given the ongoing projects such as private and charitable projects. Thus, it is imperative for the concerned authority to optimize its use as they not only belong to the current generation of Gazans, but also to future ones.”