After more than two years of witnessing the destruction of a territory, the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and the unspeakable suffering of those who survived, we are witnessing the second phase: the economic exploitation of the territory itself, which must be rebuilt, and of its people, transformed into slave labor at ridiculously low prices. ---- I'm talking about Gaza. I'm talking about the "board of peace." Economic exploitation, however, perhaps doesn't convey the idea, because ultimately, almost all political actions of states, whether military or diplomatic, whether negotiations or bilateral or multilateral agreements, are aimed at securing profits and grabbing resources. Here, however, there is a quantum leap. A leap into the abyss.
There is a territory that a ferocious war machine has not only conquered and occupied, but systematically demolished, including homes, infrastructure, and vital services. Food depots, schools, and hospitals have been repeatedly hit. It's a population that the same war machine first massacred, then reduced to a huge mass of refugees in need of everything, who no longer have shelter, food, medicine, or anything. The population that remained alive, of course. Aid, food, medicine, and shelter are being stopped and turned away by the Israeli army, starving and killing even without firing a shot. Ethnic killings and apartheid continue, and deportations will follow.
And there is a "reconstruction" plan. But beware, it's not about restoring a territory after a war to make it habitable again. It's a colonial operation pure and simple. The project presented in Davos calls for the mass deportation of Gazans and the construction of a sort of luxury mega-riviera, in which the remaining Palestinians will serve as slave labor.
This plan is in the hands of the so-called "Board of Peace," presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos. An economic body that, although composed of heads of state, is in effect a completely private business committee. The BOP was created by Trump, and will be headed by him for life. It will not be chaired by the US president, but by Trump, even when his term expires. Trump, the real estate speculator, has invited high-profile figures like Orban and Milei to join, along with representatives of states with immaculate reputations like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Morocco, Qatar, the Emirates, and Pakistan, who have accepted, and China and Russia, who have not-yet?-accepted. Russia, which is under international sanctions for the war against Ukraine. Plus many others, including Israel, the state that made this grand bargain possible with its army. But it's not important to know exactly who is on it, especially since its composition varies. A permanent seat costs a billion dollars, and it's no coincidence that the price is so high: those who are on it will make the key decisions and reap stratospheric dividends. The significant thing in itself is that this body was created. The Board of Peace shatters all the illusions nurtured by many, from the late twentieth century to the present, about the role of international law, democracy, and supranational bodies. Of course, the UN and international law were already largely discredited as regulators of disputes, but they retained a certain formal, if not substantive, authority. Now Trump, a consummate businessman, is shelving this now useless instrument and inventing a new one, based, as mentioned, on private and entrepreneurial logic, under his exclusive control. This body will manage Gaza like a master: it will be able to conclude contracts, acquire and use assets, receive public funds-we're talking about $100 billion-and private investment capital-around $40-60 billion-to channel them to companies selected by the Board of Peace itself. One might think that, if the criterion for selecting the permanent members of the board is the payment of a sum of money, the criterion for selecting companies will not be much different.
It's also important for those of us who live in Italy and Europe to consider the roles of the EU and the Italian government. The EU governments that have not joined have done so for "bureaucratic" and formal reasons of international law, certainly not out of moral reservations or a sense of justice. This international law has, in effect, already been rendered worthless by the very creation of the BOP and, even before that, by the double standards applied to International Criminal Court convictions and the application of sanctions. We can be certain of this by reading the statements of the heads of state and governments who refused, but also considering that the EU was one of Israel's greatest supporters in the genocidal war against the people of Gaza. The Italian government, for its part, has decided to participate as an "observer"-like the EU Commission itself-because the Italian Constitution apparently prohibits participation in international bodies except on an equal basis with other members. No big deal: the Italian government and defense industries are already deeply implicated in the genocide and devastation of Gaza, having unreservedly provided political support to the Israeli government and armaments to its army. Not being a full member of the BOP may exclude Italy from the biggest deals, but there's no doubt that some bones will fall from the bosses' table.
Beneath the bosses is the operational arm. I'm not referring to the Executive Council, but to the "committee of technocrats" tasked with directing the work on the ground in Gaza. The name itself says it all, but the name of its leader tells us even more. It's Ali Shahat, former deputy minister of the Ramallah government of the Palestinian National Authority. A Quisling, he leads a team of Palestinian collaborators, with the immediate task of clearing the rubble to open the field to the businesses of the BOP members and allow the construction of the mega-riviera. According to an interview Shahat himself gave to an Italian newspaper, the rubble will most likely be pushed into the sea with everything it contains-stones, metals, bomb residue, and bodies-solving two problems at once: widening the beach and clearing the ruins. The environmental and human costs involved are unknown.
In all this, Palestinians will, as already mentioned, serve as cheap labor, first in the clearing and construction work and later in the tourism services. Those who remain will be, because hundreds of thousands of them are scheduled for deportation, under the disgusting name of voluntary transfer. And that Palestinian officials, one of whom is already a member of the PA government, are part of all this tells us two things: that we need to stop talking about the Palestinian people, because this term would also include that class of officials, businessmen, bureaucrats, and politicians who do business and collaborate with the POP and Israel, with the blood of their own "people," those who are not part of the elite class, but of the proletariat, with interests totally opposed to those of the elite. Furthermore, that the solution of a Palestinian state, supported by so many people often in good faith, is a total failure. Not only for those, like me and many who read this newspaper, who are anarchists and opposed to all states. Not only for purely technical considerations such as territorial fragmentation and limited sovereignty, which can only lead to laying the foundations for new wars. Especially since the embryo of such a state would be the government of the Palestinian National Authority, the same corrupt class from which the collaborator-in-chief, Shahat, emerges.
In conclusion, the "Board of Peace" is nothing but a group of colonialist exploiters, organizing themselves with powerful tools to profit from death and suffering, in a way that is not entirely new in human history, but is new in the number and quality of the actors involved and the long-term consequences. Comparisons to hyenas and vultures might come to mind, but they would be unfair: these animals, after all, have a beneficial role in ecosystems, while the Board of Peace aims only to extract wealth from a terrible tragedy. If the Gaza operation were to bear the desired fruit, the same would happen in other regions requiring "pacification." Ukraine comes to mind, but we don't necessarily have to look at conflicts already underway. The Board of Peace members themselves are the biggest warmongers on the planet, and in this way they will be able to start conflicts and then profit from the consequences, creating jobs for themselves. The BOP is the spearhead of predatory capitalism, which thrives on the violent appropriation of territories and resources and the revenue derived from their possession. It is capitalism stripped of the democratic veneer that has camouflaged and protected it for decades. This veneer is no longer necessary, but is nevertheless constantly praised in the Newspeak of the new millennium. Therefore, if Malatesta claimed that democracy is a caterpillar that never becomes a butterfly, I dare say that with the BOP, democracy has demonstrated itself to be nothing more than a horde of ravenous parasites.
If we really wanted to find a positive function in this dirty business, it would be that of having finally revealed what I was and what was capital, even to the most naive, even to the most staunchly democratic, eyes, making visible the latest transformation underway in capitalism, the transition from the already devastating neoliberalism to a new, openly colonial and predatory phase. All organized by the president of the "greatest democracy in the world."
J. Scaltriti
https://umanitanova.org/board-of-parasites-gaza-sfruttamento-coloniale-di-un-genocidio/
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Link: (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #7-26 - Board of Parasites. Gaza: Colonial Exploitation of a Genocide (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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