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A few thoughts on the economic plan released by the Trump administration last night, despite my instinct to avoid giving this any more air time. Thread. #PeacetoProsperity #Trump #DealOfTheCentury
1/ The 40p doc. is little more than glossy repackaging of recycled economic projects, including the Kerry initiative, that have been in the public sphere for years. Even by the lowest threshold of anticipation – offering innovative economic prospects – this plan fails to impress.
2/ The plan underscores the confusion of the Trump administration: cutting funding to development projects while asking Palestinians to dream of funding amounts that dwarf what has been slashed. Revamped USAID pictures from shut projects add to the absurdity.
3/ The doc.'s delightful design does not change the fact that this is the contemporary manifestation of a long history of international efforts to patronize Palestinians into silence and replace their political identity with economic, humanitarian, cultural or religious rights.
4/ The word “occupation” appears three times: once when talking about “occupational mobility” and twice when talking about “occupation” in the workforce. A slight lost-in-translation gap between the Trump administration and the Palestinian people.
5/ Nablus's Knafeh and Rukab's ice cream, showcasing Kushner's sensitivity to local delights, are indeed to die for. Yet even these flavours, and a tourism industry built around them, will not hypnotize Palestinians into believing they are not living under brutal occupation.
6/ Such reframing of Palestinian rights is always positioned as quality of life initiatives that are couched in goodwill aimed at alleviating Palestinian suffering – if only Palestinians see what is in their own interest (colonialism 101).
[I just realized that only 6 of my clearly OTT 10 points were posted. Perhaps twitter trying to tell me something... Still, in case anyone is interested in the remainder of this thread, I've added 4 concluding thoughts below.]
7/ Such quality of life initiatives are reminiscent of the Village Leagues of the 70s and 80s. Those facilitated the eruption of the first Palestinian intifada. They failed then and they will fail now.
8/ Gaza is today the most obvious victim of such sinister efforts. The political reality of Gaza (existing under a blockade of collective punishment) is dealt with solely in humanitarian ways, with sewage treatment plants and fuel injections.
9/ The instability and suffering within the Gaza Strip perhaps suggest a failed policy? Yet instead of revisiting the humanitarian push to resolve a political crisis, this agenda is now being extended to the rest of the occupied territories.
10/ The plan's one silver lining is that, in opposition to the US administration’s naiveté, Palestinians have united in their rejection. Unless they build on this unity to articulate what they are for, not only what they are against, even this silver lining will be underwhelming.
