[ad_1]
In a sense, the timing could not be worse.
Violence that began with an intelligence operation and a shooting in Khan Younis and hundreds of rocket attacks on Israeli cities led Wednesday to the resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose employees had shown the will to let Gaza projects continue. . And early elections in Israel, in which the management of Gaza by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be a central issue, would put any progress in suspense.
Nevertheless, the diplomats, academics and eco-entrepreneurs who met this week at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, based in the tiny Kibbutz Ketura in the Negev Desert, said they wanted their projects be ready to start as soon as the time comes.
Of course, proposals for infrastructure projects in Gaza are common: in February, Israel called on international donors to finance a $ 1 billion reconstruction plan, including expensive items such as two power plants. desalination, a gas pipeline and a new Gaza electricity transmission line from Israel.
But big projects can take years, leaving Gaza's ills in a state of invasion.
In addition, Israel and international donors, reluctant to do business with Hamas, have insisted that the more moderate Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, oversee all projects. But between the quarrel between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas and the quarrel between the Trump administration and the authority, the result was a Catch-22. And nothing is done.
According to officials, the projects of the Arava group are distinguished by the fact that they could be launched immediately, with operational projects in a few months and financed for the most part by private investments.
Another risk related to ambitious infrastructure projects is that, once completed, they become tempting targets for Israeli airstrikes in wartime. Arava's strategy is to stay small and dispersed.
