Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called for the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip June 22. It wasn’t the first time he’s done that either. Rivlin uses almost every opportunity to argue that rebuilding Gaza is an Israeli interest. He holds stubbornly to the position that resolving what he calls the human tragedy there is critical. In the past, these comments have aroused the ire of right-wing activists.
It is true that after Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the international community promised $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza’s infrastructures destroyed during the military operation. This aid project, funded mainly by the European Union and the United States, should have spared the Gaza Strip from total collapse. In order to prevent the financial aid from ending up in the hands of Hamas, it was decided to create a joint mechanism to oversee the project, involving Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the United Nations.
According to the framework that the parties agreed to follow, financial donations would be transferred to Gaza based on progress being made on each project, under the supervision of a Reconstruction Administration. Creating that body was to be the responsibility of the PA.
The role of a similar group, established by the United Nations, was to set priorities in managing this enormous reconstruction project, approve the work and oversee it.
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