In recent weeks, the United Arab Emirates has begun to put forward an initiative concerning the management of civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip after the war through organizing economic and service sectors, managing markets and commercial activities, and establishing logistical centers for distributing goods within the Strip.
What is striking about this initiative is that it was not presented within a comprehensive Palestinian or Arab framework but rather through direct talks with the United States and Israel, in a clear attempt to obtain their political and security approval. This suggests that the administration of Gaza is a matter to be decided in consultation with the occupying power and its main ally, not with the people of the land themselves.
The request for Washington and Tel Aviv's approval of an initiative that is supposedly "civilian and humanitarian" reveals from the outset its true nature and political limitations. It confirms that this is not a relief or reconstruction project but rather part of post-war arrangements that seek to reshape Gaza in a way that serves the interests of the occupation and ensures the continuity of its influence through indirect means.
The initiative does not stem from the right of Palestinians to manage their own affairs but from an external perspective that views Gaza as an administrative and security file subject to experimentation and control.
The most dangerous aspect of this proposal is its intention to deploy armed security forces and utilize private American security companies to secure the logistical centers. This means introducing a foreign security presence into a sector already devastated by occupation and blockade.
This approach does not represent protection for civilians but rather reflects a mentality of guardianship and control, transforming humanitarian work into an activity guarded by weapons and subject to security calculations that have nothing to do with the real needs of the people.
Furthermore, the plan's reliance on purchasing goods entering Gaza from Israel and the involvement of Israeli companies and contractors in implementing civil projects, constitutes a blatant violation of any talk about supporting the resilience of the Gaza Strip.
Instead of working to disengage from the occupation economy, this plan is entrenching and deepening it, pumping Gaza's money into the economy of the state that destroyed its infrastructure, killed its people, and besieged them for many years.
This initiative, in its current form, does not depoliticize the administration of Gaza; rather, it practices politics in its harshest form by controlling livelihoods, markets, and services, and imposing a model of administration from the outside that disregards the Palestinian national will and excludes any independent local role.
It thus represents an extension of the normalization process and attempts to impose top-down solutions presented as "practical" alternatives while their essence is to consolidate the results of the aggression.
Gaza does not need initiatives drafted in closed rooms with the occupation nor does it need American or Israeli approval to manage its affairs. It needs an end to the aggression, the lifting of the blockade, and the empowerment of its people to determine their own destiny and build their civil administration through their free will.
Any initiative that ignores this reality regardless of its purported service-oriented objectives remains a rejected project that warrants condemnation and denunciation.
The article was originally published in Arabic on February 2, 2025, and was translated to English by Columbus Free Press staff Mahmoud El-Yousseph.