The future of Gaza will depend on world leaders and millionaire businessmeny not from the Palestinians. This was announced this Friday by the president of the United States, Donald Trumpby revealing the names of the members of the Peace Board that the new Government of the Palestinian enclave must supervise. Among the members of this newly named institution are the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blairthe Secretary of State, Marco Rubiothe White House envoy, Steve WitkoffTrump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga. There is only two women and no Palestinian representative. Furthermore, there are also prominent officials of Türkiye and Qatarwhich may end up angering Israel, since they have been the most critical countries of the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which has left more than 71,440 dead.
Each of these members will assume specific portfolios that are “fundamental to the long-term stabilization and success of Gaza, including, among other things, building governance capacity, regional relations, reconstruction, attracting investment, large scale financing and capital mobilization”, as reported by the White House. For this reason, among the members of the Executive Board, there are politicians, such as Trump’s advisor, Robert Gabrieland also businessmen, such as Marc Rowan, director of Apollo Global Management, or the Israeli-Cypriot Yakir Gabay. The most problematic names for Israel are that of the Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidanor the high-ranking Qatari diplomat, Ali Zawadi.
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Other prominent Arab members include the Egyptian intelligence chief, Hasan Rashadand the Minister of International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates, Rim Al Hashimy. Also part of the Executive Committee will be the former humanitarian coordinator of the United Nations, Sigrid Kaagand the former UN envoy to the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov. This Bulgarian politician and diplomat will be the High Representative of the Gaza Peace Board. “He will act as a liaison on the ground between the Board and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (CNAG),” the White House said in the statement published this Friday announcing the new Gaza oversight bodies. “It will support the Board’s oversight of all aspects of the governance, reconstruction and development of Gaza, while ensuring the coordination between civil and security pillars”he added.
This same Thursday the CNAG of Palestinian technocrats He held his first meeting with Mladenov in Cairo, which Kushner and Witkoff joined virtually. One of the most problematic points for Tel Aviv may be the inclusion of senior Qatari and Turkish officials, but Trump has always defended that these two countries are very useful despite his criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, since they have been the main intermediaries with Hamas to accept the current ceasefire that came into effect in October. The American president will act as president of the Peace Boardof which “additional members will be announced in the coming weeks.” At the moment, on this executive committee, there is no Palestinian representative, and women are a minority, because there are only two.
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Under Trump’s plan, the Board’s role is more symbolic and the executive committee will act as its operational arm. The Board is expected to have a hierarchical structure. At its highest level, of a symbolic-diplomatic nature, would be Trump himself, along with the leaders of the three mediating countries (Egypt, Türkiye and Qatar) and those of the United Kingdom and France. At a second level, there would be the executive committee of the Peace Board, responsible for daily coordination with the Palestinian technocratic committee, as Witkoff announced this Wednesday. The Israeli media Haaretz reports, through diplomatic sources, that the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al Sisiand his Argentine counterpart, Javier Mileywere also invited, as were the leaders of Brazil, Indonesia, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom and Morocco.
In turn, the White House has announced that Jasper Jefferscommander of special operations US Armywill lead the International Stabilization Forcethe United Nations contingent in charge of guaranteeing the future security and demilitarization of Gaza. Although that is the mandate stipulated in Trump’s peace plan, no country has openly committed its troops to this mission. This second phase of the truce, announced by Trump this week, although Israel has considered it a symbolic gesture, includes notable challenges. A new government must be formed in Gaza, made up of Palestinians who are not active in Hamasthe militia has to disarmIsraeli troops, withdraw from more territory, at the same time as the enormous challenge of the reconstruction of the enclave.
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