America and Israel are by themselves, isolated and alone on rejecting a Gaza reconstruction plan proposed by Egypt and signed off by the 22-member Arab League and numerous other nations in Europe and Africa.
The plan counters an agenda of Israel to remove the Palestinians, annex Gaza and construct settlements. The proverbial “day after” plan also counters a plan by President Donald Trump for America to take the strip over, remove the Palestinians, and develop a “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The Arab League held an emergency summit in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and agreed to a reconstruction plan for the besieged Gaza Strip worth $53 billion.
The plan would allow for the Palestinians to not be ethnically cleansed from their land in contrast to President Trump’s idea and the desire of hardline Israeli settlers to build more illegal settlements there.
The plan, dubbed “Gaza 2030” was put forward by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and approved at an emergency summit. The group’s secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit declared: “The Egypt plan is now an Arab plan.” The plan includes rebuilding infrastructure, homes and industry.
According to Al Jazeera, “The Arab plan consists of three major stages: Interim measures, reconstruction and governance.” The outlet reported on March 8, “The first stage would last about six months, while the next two phases would take place over a combined four to five years.
The aim is to reconstruct Gaza—which Israel has almost completely destroyed – maintain peace and security and reassert the governance of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the territory.” In the first phase, the plan is to clear debris and begin constructing 200,000 homes and restoring 60,000 buildings, the outlet reported.
The U.S. and Israel rejected the Arab proposal for reconstruction.
Arab League Assistant Secretary General Hossam Zaki said Israel’s response to the Arab plan was “against humanity and against morals,” reported Presstv.ir. He said President Trump’s proposal “is against international law and, we have said this time and again, this is not a way to treat this man-made crisis.”
“This is a war that has been waged by Israel partly with the aim of driving Palestinians out of their territory,” said Mr. Zaki.
Additionally, the plan was endorsed by the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Outside of the Arab world, the European Union, the African Union, and the United Nations Secretary General support the Arab proposal.
The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement March 8th, that they supported the Arab plan. “The plan shows a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and promises—if implemented—swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza,” said the statement. The European leaders call for Gaza to be governed by the Palestinian Authority in place of Hamas.
South Africa applauded the Arab League proposal to rebuild Gaza. In December 2023, South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) arguing the actions of the Israeli regime during the war in Gaza breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
“South Africa welcomes the outcomes of the Arab League Emergency Summit held on March 4th, that supports a settlement on Gaza that is led by, and inclusive of, Palestinians, and that expressly rejects the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,” said a statement issued by South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
The statement said that South Africa also supports the Arab League’s call for a United Nations international peacekeeping force in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure security and stability.
South Africa strongly condemns the refusal of Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and its closure of border crossings at a time when the people of Gaza are experiencing immeasurable suffering and urgently need food, shelter and medical supplies.
Preventing food from entering Gaza is a continuation of Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war as part of the ongoing campaign of what the ICJ ruled to be plausible genocide against the Palestinian people.
South Africa concurs with Qatar, one of the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, that halting the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip is a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement, international humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
South Africa calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable and ensure the safe, continuous, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to all areas of the Gaza Strip.
Answering media questions during a State Department briefing about the Arab plan, Tammy Bruce, the department spokeswoman, said the plan does not meet the expectations set by President Trump for resolving the situation in Gaza.
The U.S. position remains that Hamas cannot be allowed to exist in Gaza, she said. The U.S. is looking for a solution that addresses this core issue, she added. Eradicating Hamas is also Israel’s stated aim. For some this means continued war.
The war in Gaza is on a frail multi-phased ceasefire agreement signed in January. Phase 1 ended March 1. By presstime, disagreement had stalled initiating Phase 2, and concerns were growing whether carnage will pick back up.
Exacerbating things further, on March 4, President Trump delivered his first speech of his second term to a deeply divided joint session of Republicans and Democrats. In the wide-ranging speech, he spoke about the Middle East. “In the Middle East, we’re bringing back our hostages from Gaza,” President Trump told the lawmakers.
In the war, Israel’s occupier forces killed 62,614 Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera. Hamas-led fighters killed 1,139 Israelis and others in the initial Oct. 7 attacks, where 251 people were taken hostage. Most have been released in ceasefire agreements or other arrangements.
Besides announcing an impending release of American-Israeli captives, President Trump also said peace would be accomplished by implementing an initiative from his previous term of Arab states normalizing relations with Israel.
“In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations, the Abraham accords,” said the president. “We’re going to build on that foundation to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region,” he stated.
However, the optimistic talk about peace took a sharp turn when he issued a not-so-veiled threat to Hamas, on his Truth Social platform. “’Shalom Hamas’” means Hello and Goodbye –
You can choose,” he posted on March 5. “Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” he continued.
“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” President Trump warned. “This is your last warning!” he told the leadership of Hamas, “now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance.”
Perhaps the most eerie words of the post from the president—who weeks prior proposed to rebuild Gaza into a “Riviera” and resettle the Palestinians in Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations was—“To the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision.”
The remarks came on the heels of news breaking that the Trump administration was holding direct talks with Hamas concerning the release of American captives and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war, according to Israel’s Walla News site.
The negotiations conducted by the U.S. president’s envoy for abductees affairs, Adam Buehler, are unprecedented. The United States has reportedly never had direct contact with Hamas, which it designated a terrorist organization in 1997.
In reaction to President Trump’s warning, Hamas dismissed the ultimatum, that they said constitutes support for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back out of the Gaza ceasefire and intensify the siege of Gazans, reported Reuters.
Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight more in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire.
“Trump’s repeated threats against our people represent support to Netanyahu to evade the agreement and tightens the siege and starvation against our people,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said in a text message to Reuters.
“The best track to release the remaining Israeli prisoners is by … going into the second phase and compelling it (Israel) to adhere to the agreement signed under the sponsorship of mediators,” he said.
Phase 2 called for the release of the remaining captives and the talks toward ending the war. However, against the terms of the agreement Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods entering Gaza, demanding that Hamas release the remaining hostages without beginning the talks.
Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston, told The Final Call, he sees the Arab Plan as a good initiative; however, it won’t go through if Israel resumes fighting.
The rightwing elements in Israel: “They want that land,” he said.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned, over a year ago, that the U.S. and Israel covet Gaza because it is rich with resources. He also warned that Prime Minister Netanyahu knew beforehand of what Hamas was planning leading to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“My life belongs to Allah, so He didn’t want me to come out here today with any trepidation over what He showed me of Netanyahu, who schemed; knew they were going to die, and went through with it. Because ‘the greater good’ he was thinking of was what’s in Gaza right now:
Billions of dollars of oil and gas is under the foot of the Palestinians, and they want it for themselves!” Minister Farrakhan warned in his 2024 Saviours’ Day message, “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”
“The White people that saw value in the land of the native people that had wealth under that land, they gave them the permission (‘Okay, you go there’), because they didn’t think there was any value! But when they found out there was value, they killed those native people to get the value.
“And that’s what they’re doing now to the Palestinians, because they want to build a great canal, bigger than the Suez Canal, because there are billions and billions of dollars of oil and gas in Gaza, and the waters around Gaza. So, they use the Amalekites (an enemy nation of Israel) as a justification for killing the Palestinians,” Minister Farrakhan said.
