{"id":277507,"date":"2024-10-21T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=277507"},"modified":"2024-10-17T05:54:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T04:54:48","slug":"a-gaza-development-corporation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/10\/a-gaza-development-corporation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gaza Development Corporation"},"content":{"rendered":"

16 Oct 2024 <\/em>– There is increasing discussion concerning the Gaza Strip, its relation to the West Bank, and “the day after” when there is a ceasefire, people return to their home area, and reconstruction begins. Reconstructing violence-ridden societies poses a great challenge.\u00a0 The end of the violence has to be accompanied by rebuilding the physical infrastructure.\u00a0 However, more important is some sort of cooperation among people. Thus, the Association of World Citizens (AWC) had proposed in a written text to the United Nations Human Rights Council (A\/HRC\/5-12\/NGO \/1, 14 0ctober 2009) the creation of a Gaza Development Corporation, a strong, future-oriented positive vision influenced by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) of the “New Deal” of the U.S.A. and a Jordan Valley Authority proposed in the early 1950s.<\/p>\n

The AWC proposal had been first submitted to the representatives of governments and the United Nations Secretariat for an international funding conference for the Palestinian Authority held in Paris in December 2007. At the funding conference, the World Bank representative, much in the spirit of the AWC proposal, stressed the need to integrate an economically-vigorous Palestine into the wider geographic context.\u00a0 Such a wider economic zone would include Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.\u00a0 The World Bank representative highlighted that prosperity depends on liberating the economic potential of the Palestinian refugees and their descendants.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Gaza Development Corporation was not acted upon at the Paris funding meeting nor in its follow up phase.\u00a0 Creating a framework and institutions to help the people of the Gaza Strip and the wider region will not be easy. However, difficult times call for political creativity.\u00a0 Thus, the AWC re-proposes for consideration the creation of a Gaza Development Corporation.<\/p>\n

The Tennessee Valley Authority was created in May 1933 to help overcome the deep economic depression in the U.S.A.\u00a0 President Franklin Roosevelt in his message to Congress suggested that the Authority should be a<\/p>\n

“corporation clothed with the power of Government but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise. It should be charged with the broadest duty of planning for the proper use, conservation and development of the natural resources of the Tennessee River drainage basin and its adjoining territory for the general social and economic welfare of the Nation… This in a true sense is a return to the spirit and vision of the pioneer.\u00a0 If we are successful here, we can march on, step by step, in the development of other great natural territorial units.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The central idea of the TVA was that it should do many things, all connected with each other. To do all these activities well, it had to be a public corporation, public because it served the public interest, a corporation rather than a government department, so that it could initiate the flexible, responsive management of a well-run private business.\u00a0 As Stringfellow Barr wrote in his book Citizen of the World (New York: Doubleday and Co, 1952, 285pp)\u00a0 “The great triumph of the TVA was not the building of dams.\u00a0 Great dams had been built before.\u00a0 The greatest triumph was that it not only taught the Valley people but insisted on learning from them too.\u00a0 It respected persons.”<\/p>\n

Strong socioeconomic structures are needed which can be maintained during periods of inevitable future tensions.\u00a0 As Jean Monet, one of the fathers of the European Common Market has said “Men take great decisions only when crisis stares them in the face.”\u00a0 Just as the first steps of the European Common Market had to overcome the deep wounds of the Second World War, so the situation in the Gaza Strip and the wider area needs to break the strong psychological barriers with cooperative economic measures from which many can benefit.\u00a0 A ceasefire and the start of negotiations in good faith must be the first steps.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Ren\u00e9 Wadlow is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. He <\/em>is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues<\/em>, and <\/em>editor of <\/em>Transnational Perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Oct 2024 – There is increasing discussion concerning the Gaza Strip, its relation to the West Bank, and “the day after” when there is a ceasefire, people return to their home area, and reconstruction begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":244689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[87,88,427,2418,1025],"class_list":["post-277507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-rights","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277518,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277507\/revisions\/277518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}