The Viceroyalty of Gaza

From October of 2023 through to October 2025 we were faced with the spectacle of a genocide being broadcast into our homes. And just in case the seventy-three thousand deaths that occurred is hard to wrap your head around (nearly equivalent to the population of Lisburn), there was heart-wrenching story after heart-wrenching story after heart-wrenching story after heart-wrenching story personalising the horror.

History will rightfully condemn the hypocrisy of those who make a virtue of how they stand by Ukraine whilst they shied away from lifting a finger to help the people of Gaza for fear of antagonising Israel or their mighty patron in the United States. But history has yet to make its judgment and whilst the ceasefire has now been in place for over three months, the agony of Gaza isn’t over yet (nor has there been an end to the heart-wrenching stories either).

Donald Trump’s peace plan, under which the fighting ‘stopped’ (even as Israel managed to kill at least even more Palestinians in only the past few days) has at last moved to the long-anticipated ‘Phase Two’.

This involves the establishment of a technocratic government, the ‘National Committee for the Administration of Gaza’ or NCAG to oversee the territory from the city of Cairo in neighbouring Egypt and which held its first meeting on the 16^th January.

It is worth pointing out that the Palestinian Authority, the current ‘governing’ body of the Palestinians in the West Bank, which was expelled from Gaza by Hamas nearly two decades ago and which was many European politicians preferred option to govern the territory following the war is NOT going to be involved. It was excluded at the insistence of Israel, which is why the NCAG is necessary. The reasoning for this is the same as it has always been, Benjamin Netanyahu will do everything in his power to prevent the emergence of a united and coherent Palestinian leadership that could function as a credible partner in negotiations to resolve the entire conflict. Allowing the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza could be the first step in reforming that moribund, corrupt and highly incompetent body into a proper political vehicle for Palestinian aspirations, so that had to be prevented at all costs and of course he has gotten his way.

Furthermore, President Trump has appointed a ‘Board of Peace’ to ‘support’ the new technocratic administration. And who is on this board? Beyond U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio we have a Bulgarian politician named Nickolay Mladenov will serve as ‘High Representative of Gaza’. The CNN profile on the man describes an accomplished diplomat with experience in Middle East though one Palestinian source in the article was somewhat more circumspect…

“Among Palestinians, appraisals are more nuanced. Xavier Abu Eid, a political analyst who used to work with the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department as an adviser, acknowledged Mladenov’s professionalism. “He was always seen as someone very serious, someone who knew the files very well. He was not the kind of envoy or diplomat that depended too much on advisers or people telling him what to say,” he said. But Abu Eid also told CNN he felt Mladenov leaned into the Israeli position too much, being more concerned with Israel’s image than with human rights violations suffered by Palestinians. “He cared about Palestinians, but he cared more about Israelis,” Abu Eid said.”

He was also named in the Pandora Papers, the trove of documents peeking behind the financial secrecy of some of the world’s most powerful people that was revealed in 2021 though he has consistently denied any wrong-doing.

Then there’s Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. During Trump’s first term Kushner was directed to come up with a comprehensive peace plan which was unveiled to great fanfare in early 2020 that was less a blueprint for the future and more a way to give Netanyahu everything he desired. It would have left the Palestinians with a limited, highly conditional sovereignty amidst a fragmented political landscape whilst allowing Israel to swallow huge tracts of territory. Kushner was also among the voices early last year who encouraged Trump to commit to the Gaza Riviera plan which would involve the departure of the Palestinian residents of Gaza so that the territory could be economically rehabilitated. And they ‘definitely’ would have been allowed to return at some point once things had been fixed…

Another board member is Steve Witkoff. Witkoff, a real estate developer who has maintained a friendship with Trump since 1986, has parlayed that background into becoming Trump’s personal envoy on some of the most delicate and complex geopolitical issues of our time. Though some may question his intentions and loyalties given it was recently revealed that he was coaching an aide of Vladimir Putin to ensure the Russian President said all the right things to President Trump in order to gain maximum leverage for his stance on Ukraine.

One name that really sticks out in this latest announcement is former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. According to ‘The Independent’…

“Sir Tony Blair has said he is “honoured” to be part of Donald Trump’s Gaza “Board of Peace”, tasked with overseeing the rebuilding of the territory and the transition to a new administration…Blair said in a statement: “I thank President Trump for his leadership in establishing the Board of Peace and am honoured to be appointed to its executive board. It’s been a real privilege to work with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and their outstanding team. I look forward to working with them and other colleagues in line with the president’s vision to promote peace and prosperity.”

Tony Blair is of course haunted by the spectre of his involvement in the Iraq War when he committed the United Kingdom to participating in an invasion of Iraq alongside the United States on the justification that then incumbent dictator Saddam Hussein had to be prevented from being able to use weapons of mass destruction. These weapons were later found to be non-existent.

Whilst the casualty figures for the Iraq War remain disputed, they were colossal with the minimum figure given as being one hundred and fifty thousand people with some estimates reaching as high as one million killed. Following his premiership he served as an envoy representing ‘the Quartet’, which was comprised of the US, EU, Russia and the UN as they sought to promote peace in the Middle East (yes, at one point the US and Russia tried to promote peace in the Middle East rather than the opposite. Times change). He resigned from the role in 2015 but it seems this period and the experience he may have gained is likely the basis for his current appointment to the Board of Peace.

There is also an irony in that the key issue of phase two is destined to be the disarmament of the Hamas organisation (if you thought it was going to be housing and feeding the people of Gaza then I am afraid you will be bitterly disappointed). Whether in Ireland, Iraq or Gaza, Tony Blair seems always to be involved in the removal of SOMEBODY’s weapons. Though whether that task is feasible remains to be seen. Whilst Israel will use the threat of an armed Hamas to justify a continued state of attritional siege on the population, Hamas will almost certainly not willingly give up the weapons that give it leverage in negotiations AND over the civilian population of Gaza.

Leaving aside the scale of their immediate but most difficult task, what leaps out at you when you go through the list of names is that there isn’t a single Palestinian name on it. Not one. There isn’t even any Arabs on the Executive board from a neighbouring country. The people of Gaza are to be ruled without input or consultation and some of the people chosen to do the ruling are almost a caricature of how a talented satirist would have constituted the body for a gag.

It’s naked neo-colonialism, the imposition of foreign control over a territory with the intent to reshape it’s institutions and economy without the consent of the governed.

With two of the board members having a background in real estate development (and at least one having expressed an interest in the real estate potential of the strip) and with close personal ties to the President, you can’t help but get the feeling that once again President Trump is trying to ensure he can profit from another people’s misery. On which he has form. If Trump gets his way, Gaza is to be run as a colony though that truth will undoubtedly be obfuscated through overly technical bureaucratese. Or at least whatever parts of it Israel doesn’t manage to de facto annex behind its nascent yellow line which some in Israel are referring to as the new border.