Ref:
08/2015

On
Wednesday, 25 March 2015, the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Unit of the
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) organized a conference titled
“Challenges for the Gaza Strip Reconstruction” in Lighthouse
Restaurant in Gaza City. Around 200 participants, including representatives of
governmental organizations, private sector and civil community-based
organizations, attended the conference. 
PCHR organized this conference after publishing a position paper about
the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip criticizing Robert Serry’s UN mechanism,
which does not meet the minimum requirements of the reconstruction process.  The conference included two sessions; the
first one addressed the role of parties involved in the Gaza Strip reconstruction,
which was facilitated by Mr. Mohsen Abu Ramadan, and the second one addressed challenges
for the Gaza Strip reconstruction, which was facilitated by Ms. Ibtisam
al-‘Aayedi.

Mr.
Jaber Wishah, Deputy Director of PCHR, opened the conference welcoming the
participants and called on raising discussion on the challenges for the Gaza
Strip reconstruction and its mechanism in order to make recommendations that
would contribute to meeting the urgent needs of the Gaza Strip and all requirements
of the reconstruction process.

In
his intervention and during the first session titled as “Role of the
National Unity Government in the Gaza Strip Reconstruction”, Dr. Mofid
al-Hasaynah, Minister of Public Works and Housing, highlighted the efforts
exerted by the government to ease the suffering of the Gaza Strip population,
especially the owners of destroyed houses to whom the government give great
attention in order to compensate them and ensure their tight to housing.  The Minister added that the closure imposed
on the Gaza Strip is the main challenge for the Gaza reconstruction.  He also said that despite the closure, the
government succeeded to compensate partially around 85% of the owners of
destroyed houses.  He emphasized that the
UN mechanism to allow the construction materials into Gaza does not meet the
needs of reconstruction, and the government accepted it as there was no other more
convenient alternative than this to ease the suffering of the Gaza Strip
population.

In
his presentation titled as “The Role of the Private Sector in the Gaza
Reconstruction”, Engineer Nabil Abu Mu’eileq, Chairperson of the
Palestinian Contractors Union in Gaza, reviewed the private sector’s
vision.  He said that around 100,000
housing units were damaged either partially or completely during the latest
offensive.  He added that the imports of
construction materials were given to the slightly damaged houses, which means
more than 85% of the destroyed civil facilities and completely destroyed houses
have not been approached.  Abu Mu’eileq
demanded lifting the closure immediately to allow importing all Gaza’s needs of
construction materials in order to run 300 construction companies and provide
jobs for around 70,000 technical and vocational workers in the construction
sector.

In
his intervention titled as “UNRWA’s Role in the Gaza Reconstruction”,
‘Adnan Abu Hasnah, UNRWA spokesperson in Gaza, highlighted the efforts exerted
by UNRWA to rehabilitate the destroyed houses. 
He said that UNRWA promised to rebuild the houses of refugees in the
Gaza Strip after coordinating with the Palestinian Presidency.  Abu Hasnah appealed to put pressure on the
international community in order to quicken the transfer of its financial
pledges that would accelerate the reconstruction of thousands of damaged
houses.

Dr.
Fadel al-Muzeini, a researcher in PCHR’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Unit, presented his position paper, which was previously published on PCHR’s
website.  He talked about the slowdown of
the reconstruction efforts due to the Israeli closure imposed on the Gaza
Strip.  He also considered that maintaining
the same UN mechanism of the Gaza Strip reconstruction a doomed-to-failure
process.  Al-Muzeini stressed that this
mechanism completely failed to make any achievements on the ground or meet the
minimum requirements of the Gaza reconstruction process.  He added that this mechanism contributed to the
institutionalization of the eight-year closure imposed on the Gazza Strip, and expressed
concerns over legitimizing that policy.

During
the second session, Dr. Taysir Muheisen, Deputy Director of the Agricultural
Relief Committees reviewed in his intervention titled as “the Civil
Community’s Vision of the Gaza Strip Reconstruction Process” the position
of the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO). 
He addressed the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, actual
absence of the government and the failure to initiate the reconstruction.  He also called for forming a Palestinian
national committee, which should include all the components of the Palestinian
society (governmental, private, and civil sectors), Competencies and
representatives of those affected during the offensive.  Muheisen called also for a comprehensive and
integrated vision to supervise all the reconstruction stages on the basis of
transparency and accountability and to have its head office in Gaza.

In
his intervention titled as “The Gaza Reconstruction between Reality and
Expectations”, Dr. Samir Abu Mudalalah, Professor of Economics at al-Azhar
University in Gaza, warned of the continued deterioration of economic indicators
due to the Palestinian political division and the closure imposed on the Gaza
Strip.  Abu Mudalalah said that the
government is bewildered about dealing with the reconstruction issue, including
absenting the Palestinian development plans.

Dr. Maher
al-Tabba’a, Director of Public Relations in the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce
in Gaza, called in his presentation titled “The Economic Impact of Delayed
Gaza Reconstruction” upon all the Palestinian society sectors to take
advantage of the historic opportunity to achieve the national reconciliation as
a prerequisite for the reconstruction and put an end to the Israeli policy of
the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip.

In
an intervention titled as “Women and Reconstruction: A Vision from A
Gender Perspective” Khalil Shahin, Director of PCHR’s Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights Unit, talked about the absence of women from the Gaza
reconstruction scene as they have been excluded from the whole process starting
from the government preparations and formation of committees.  He also talked about the suffering of women
due to the desperate humanitarian situation, which has created various forms of
deprivation and deterioration of their economic situation in a patriarchal
society that enhances the gender-based discrimination even in the harshest and
most difficult conditions in women’s life. 
Shahin called also for the adoption of policies and measures that
guarantee the full and effective participation of women in the Gaza Strip
reconstruction and achieve gender equality as a prerequisite in the context of
enhancing women’s role in the process of building peace and security that
mainly depends on a gender-based vision, including its international legal
context especially the UN Security Council Resolution no. 1325.

At
the conclusion of the conference, the discussion was opened and participants
intervened presenting many recommendations as follows:

· Reconsidering
the UN Reconstruction Mechanism to guarantee the immediate end of the
comprehensive closure imposed on the Gaza Strip and allow the freedom of
movement for persons and goods;

· Putting
pressure on the Israeli authorities to allow the immediate entry of reconstruction
needs into Gaza, especially the construction materials;

· Including
associations of displaced Palestinians among the representatives of those
affected by the Israeli aggression in all the reconstruction process stages;

· Calling
upon the international donors to fulfill their financial obligations that they
pledged to offer in the Cairo International Conference on Gaza Reconstruction
as any delay in transferring money to those affected contributes to delaying
the reconstruction process and further deterioration to the humanitarian
situation;

· Calling
upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to
take practical steps according to their legal obligations in order to force the
Israeli authorities to respect the Convention and stop all policies that
violate the Palestinian economic, cultural and social rights in addition to
their civil and political rights; and

· Enhancing
women’s effective participation on the basis of gender according to the UN
mechanism and the UN Security Council Resolution no. 1325 in order to promote
women’s contribution to building peace and security and take all
administrative, legislative and financial measures to end the gender-based discrimination.