This piece was reprinted by OpEdNews with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
So what was the Initiative for the Palestinian Economy?
Click Here to Read Whole Article
When he rolled out the plan at the 2013 World Economic Forum in Jordan, Kerry hailed it as "bigger, bolder and more ambitious than anything proposed," promising a $4 billion injection of investments into the Palestinian economy.
Despite his optimism, Kerry stonewalled all reporters seeking details. All that was known was that the plan's implementation would be overseen by Tony Blair, the corruption-stained Quartet Representative who has earned close to $100 million advising a vast web of corporations, banks and dictators from Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbeyev to Egypt's Sisi. To lend the initiative momentum on the ground, Kerry recruited Munib Al-Masri, the Palestinian tycoon who lives high above the poverty stricken Balata Refugee Camp in an Italian revival-style mansion. He had also enlisted the financial know-how of Tim Collins, a major Democratic Party donor and vulture capitalist whose Ripplewood Holdings leveraged buyout firm liquidated Hostess, sending 18,000 unionized workers into the ranks of the unemployed. These were the selfless visionaries called by history to save Palestine.
Last year, a Palestinian businessman leaked to me a 14-page paper produced on behalf of the Quartet by McKinsey and Company which outlined the goals of the Initiative for the Palestinian Economy. It was a bizarre document that analyzed Gaza and the West Bank as though they were normal developing nations whose economic performance could be optimized with just a little technical know-how and a few innovative marketing strategies. Not once was Israel's occupation of Palestine mentioned in the paper.
McKinsey's consultants wrote that the walled-in Gaza ghetto "underperforms on key tourism metrics," but the brainy analysts couldn't seem to say why, alluding only to "regional instability" and "low awareness of existing tourism destination sites" as obstacles to progress. Ignoring the Israeli siege, the factor that made literally everything McKinsey proposed a ridiculous fantasy, the firm proposed "a range of new hotel offerings"underpinned by aggressive marketing." If only Gaza could find a winning brand, McKinsey suggested, boutique spas would suddenly blossom along its coastline, providing stunning vistas of Israel's naval blockade.
To bring Gaza's beleaguered economy back to life, McKinsey called for the proliferation of sweatshops that would churn out zippers and buttons for "high-end designers in Israeli clothing markets requiring relatively small, customized orders not handled well by bulk-order manufacturers." So much for Singapore on the Mediterranean. Under international guidance, Gaza would become an occupied Bangladesh, producing accoutrements for trendy Tel Aviv fashionistas. And perhaps Gaza's sweatshop workers might even fabricate some zippers for a custom order of Israeli army uniforms when the hipsters of Tel Aviv are called up for the next ground invasion.
Nearly every construction and agricultural project envisioned by McKinsey has been nullified by Israel's siege and its accompanying military assaults. Not a single dollar has been pledged to the Northern Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment Project, which was highlighted in the McKinsey document as one of the Quartet's major achievements. And not one of the affordable housing units McKinsey proposed has been built. Instead, Israel damaged or destroyed at least 18,000 homes in Gaza this summer and obliterated 128 businesses while bombing the strip's already overtaxed sanitation, electricity and water supply facilities to smithereens. So much for "transformative change" and "greater life-changing opportunities on the ground."
Even as he conceded that aid to Gaza was a "band-aid fix," Kerry offered no political remedies beyond the framework plan for two states that the Israeli government resoundingly rejected earlier this year. Thus his appearance in Cairo and the entire spectacle of the donor conference added another layer of window dressing on the brutal status quo.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials ratcheted up their bloodcurdling imprecations. "If one Protective Edge was not enough, you will get two and three until Hamas terror ends," Transportation Minister Katz proclaimed. "I prefer 1,000 Palestinian mothers crying than letting one Jewish mother cry."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
