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An offshore port on an artificial island, the airport, 540 thousand residential units; 160 thousand new jobs and a per capita GDP of 9 thousand dollars, that of a middle-income country. Commerce, industry, urban planning, terrestrial connectivity, high-speed rail and 5G; desalination and renewable energy, the heart of an economic mega-region halfway between Eurasia and Africa.
It may seem strange to describe it like this but we are talking about the Gaza Strip: what it will be like in 2050 at the end of its reconstruction, after a gradual path that includes more urgent things to do by 2030: eliminate the destruction left by the war and restore the infrastructure basic; by 2040: break down the barriers that had made Gaza a cage and develop regional connectivity. Until 2050, when the inhabitants of the Strip and the Palestinians of the West Bank, who together have now become 13 million, will enjoy the benefits of regional and international exchanges in the Levantine mega-region.
The project, which to define as ambitious would be an understatement, is called Palestine Emerging. It was created in London by “a pro-bono coalition” of over a hundred leaders of private and some public companies, architects, engineers, urban planners, financial institutions and civil society: local Palestinians, diaspora, Europeans and Americans. www.palestine-emerging.org.
Its first formal act was the publication of a report, “Economic Reconstruction & Development”, which indicates the sectors of intervention: economic stabilization, infrastructural networks, social assets, soft power, civil society, economic growth. The report explains what Gaza will be like in 26 years with Palestine Emerging and without. Among all the planned interventions, some are considered gamechangers, the turning points for the success of the project: for example the Gaza/West Bank link, the Gaza Island Port, water autonomy, the 5G network.
War
At the moment some important problems are preventing the project from starting: there is a war, the Palestinians are dying under bombs or starving, the Hamas extremists are still entrenched in the rubble and in the tunnels. And Israel has no intention of recognizing a Palestinian state, without which there will be no inter-connectivity or mega-region. Almost as an incipit of Palestine Emerging, the authors insist on “consciously” stating that “we have chosen not to indicate political preconditions”.