We reject “Disaster Capitalism” for Gaza’s future
JVL Introduction
We have previously reported on the work of Architects for Gaza who are working with local partner in Gaza to create practical visions for rebuilding. Like others they are working to help create a post “war” Gaza for the people of Gaza. Others, however, are planning a future, as with Iraq and Afghanistan before, based on “disaster capitalism” where the agency of the people is ignored and, in the most extreme examples (Israel’s and Trump’s) the people are completely erased.
This article takes us through four major plans backed by the powerful that would:
“enable… the establishment of a governance structure that denies Palestinians political agency and control over their future; a process of land grabbing, resource extraction, and reconstruction profiteering; and the imposition of security arrangements to enforce the conditions necessary for sustained political and economic control by Israel and its allies.” The most extreme versions (Israel’s and Trump’s) are for a Gaza without Palestinians.
The article also shows the potential of the other way to create a future based on Palestinians’ experience, skills and commitment. This must not be an opportunity for profiteering but for restitution. restoration and rebuilding communities as well as buildings. But, as this article makes clear, if the disaster capitalists have their way in Gaza, it will have global implications and be worse than in Iraq and Afghanistan and will .
We are grateful to the Carnegie Centre for the Middle East for licensing sharing of this article under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
LL
This article was originally published by Carnegie Middle East Centre on Thu 24 Jul 2025. Read the original here.
Destruction, Disempowerment, and Dispossession: Disaster Capitalism and the Postwar Plans for Gaza
Once Israel’s war in the territory is brought to an end, the foundational principles guiding reconstruction should be Palestinian self-determination, local agency, and sovereignty.
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There’s something very wrong here. This long-winded essay totally ignores the fact that everyone Palestinian in Gaza is at imminent risk of dying of starvation, if not from bombing and shooting, especially all the children, meaning there is no need to take any account of them, let alone involve them, in any plan for the future. I think this publication should be deleted from this website for apparently not recognising this.