Even With Gaza Under Siege, Some Are Imagining Its Reconstruction - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/28/business/gaza-economy-rebuilding.html
The plan centers on a series of major projects, including a deepwater port, a desalination plant to provide drinking water, an online health care service and a transportation corridor connecting Gaza with the West Bank. A fund for reconstruction and development would oversee future undertakings.
The most forward-looking components, such as reducing customs barriers to trade and introducing a new currency in place of the Israeli shekel, assume the eventual establishment of Palestinian autonomy, a step that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to resist. He has also brushed aside the prospect that the future governance of Gaza could include a role for the Palestinian Authority, the most obvious potential partner for the reconstruction initiative.
The enormous price tag of any rebuilding is another impediment. The toll of the damage to Gaza’s crucial infrastructure has reached $18.5 billion, according to a recent estimate by the World Bank and the United Nations. Half the population is on the verge of famine, and more than a million people lack homes.
[...]
While visions of modern transportation systems may now seem tangential to Gaza’s essential needs, the plan is governed by the assumption that even temporary structures like emergency housing and health care facilities must be thoughtfully placed to avoid squandering future possibilities.
“Temporary tends to become permanent very quickly,” Mr. Choa said. “Someone says, ‘We’re going to put this big refugee camp right here,’ but that could be exactly where you want to put a wastewater treatment plant or a transit line in the future. You then create an obstacle.”
[...]
The ideas that have emerged from the workshops extend into the next quarter-century. These include the erection of a cutting edge soccer stadium and the elevation of the existing soccer team to a more internationally competitive level, and the creation of a strategy to encourage a Palestinian film industry.
[j’avoue mon scepticisme, voire mon effarement, sur cette affaire de stage]
The deepwater port would be established on an artificial island built from the nearly 30 million tons of debris and rubble that are expected to cover the territory whenever the conflict is over, with removal anticipated to take as long as a decade.
The plan proposes the establishment of a degree-granting Technical University of Reconstruction in northern Gaza that would draw students from around the world. They would study strategies to dig out from disaster and spur development, using postwar Gaza as a living laboratory.
The destruction is so extensive that the usual means of administering aid and overseeing rebuilding will be inadequate, said the World Bank official.
American government agencies face legal restrictions on working directly with the Palestinian Authority. Other institutions are reluctant to transact with the Palestinian Authority given its reputation for corruption. All of this makes private companies critical elements of the plan, even as they too will grapple with the risks of investing in a highly uncertain climate.
[inévitablement, le pont aux ânes de la pensée néolibérale]
While the largest projects require clarity over the future political administration of Gaza, other initiatives, such as those aimed at encouraging small businesses, could begin as soon as military activities cease.
“I want to focus on how we open the bread store, how we get factories up and running,” said Jim Pickup, chief executive of the Middle East Investment Initiative, a nonprofit that finances development projects. “Every truck that is going to remove rubble is a small business itself, supporting a family.”
Les #déblais sont à la fois une contrainte, très lourde à gérer et à manipuler, au sens propre, mais aussi une ressource susceptible de générer des revenus par son transport et sa transformation, et une matière première à réutiliser dans ce projet de #port, dont il me semble des entreprises israéliennes ont déjà proposé des visions il y a quelques mois. En tout cas, en 2017, les Israéliens avaient déjà diffusé des images de tels projets : ▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/israel-minister-for-intelligence-promotes-plan-for-gaza-island/2017/06/27/4e30586e-5b30-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207_video.html
#urbanisme #reconstruction
Tout cela est un peu délirant alors qu’on ne sait pas vers quelle gouvernance de Gaza on va, et surtout quelle souveraineté l’entité aura... ce type de projet présuppose d’emblée une forme très forte de dépendance. Sans doute l’idée c’est : le gaz paiera. Je suis surpris que les Emiratis, les Saoudiens et les Qataris ne soient pas mentionnés dans l’article (sauf à l’état de fantasme : « The new initiative has yet to engage with the Gulf countries, Mr. Choa said. »)