Ex-UK PM Tony Blair under consideration to lead Gaza

Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, is reportedly being considered to lead post-war Gaza, the Middle East Eye reported on September 29th.

In a plan leaked by Haaretz, the Gaza Strip would be governed by a board of billionaires and businesspeople in the highest positions of power, while highly vetted “neutral” Palestinian administrators would be in lower positions of power.

The Gaza International Transitional Authority, or GITA, is the name given to the new institution that will run Gaza.

The draft states that Gita will be run by a global board which has “supreme political and legal authority for Gaza during the transitional period”.

The board will be responsible for all appointments and will oversee every aspect of the authority.

It will consist of between seven and 10 members, such as a chair.

The board will include a senior United Nations official, with Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, cited as an example.

It would also include “leading international figures with executive and financial expertise”.

Three names are referred to as possible candidates: Marc Rowan, a billionaire who owns one of America’s biggest private equity firms; Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian billionaire in the telecommunications and technology sector; and Aryeh Lightstone, chief executive of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute.

Lightstone was a senior adviser to David Friedman, a strong backer of Israel’s illegal settlement activity, when he was US ambassador to Israel between 2017 and 2021 under US president Donald Trump’s initial administration. More than 700,000 Israelis are believed to live in settlements in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The leaked document also said that the board would have “a strong representation of Muslim members to ensure regional legitimacy and cultural credibility”.

These Muslim figures would ideally have the backing of their nations as well as “long-standing business credibility”.

There was seemingly no mention of the board having any Christian members to represent the Palestinian Christian community, which has also come under attack by Israel.

Blair has long been a controversial figure in the Middle East, with many calling for his prosecution for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity over Britain’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It was reported on January 1st last year, that Blair was reportedly at the centre of an Israeli initiative which wished for Gazans to be displaced out of the war-torn Strip.

It was reported on August 27th that Blair was participating in talks in the US, which were led by President Donald Trump, concerning what would happen to Gaza when the war ended.

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and ex-senior advisor, also took part in the talks; Kushner has called for Gaza’s population to be expelled, because a Gaza “waterfront property could be very valuable.”

Middle East Eye via Haaretz, Maghrebi.org