A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #7-26 - Board of Parasites. Gaza: Colonial Exploitation of a Genocide (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

After more than two years of witnessing the destruction of a territory, 
the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and the unspeakable suffering 
of those who survived, we are witnessing the second phase: the economic 
exploitation of the territory itself, which must be rebuilt, and of its 
people, transformed into slave labor at ridiculously low prices. ---- 
I'm talking about Gaza. I'm talking about the "board of peace." Economic 
exploitation, however, perhaps doesn't convey the idea, because 
ultimately, almost all political actions of states, whether military or 
diplomatic, whether negotiations or bilateral or multilateral 
agreements, are aimed at securing profits and grabbing resources. Here, 
however, there is a quantum leap. A leap into the abyss.

There is a territory that a ferocious war machine has not only conquered 
and occupied, but systematically demolished, including homes, 
infrastructure, and vital services. Food depots, schools, and hospitals 
have been repeatedly hit. It's a population that the same war machine 
first massacred, then reduced to a huge mass of refugees in need of 
everything, who no longer have shelter, food, medicine, or anything. The 
population that remained alive, of course. Aid, food, medicine, and 
shelter are being stopped and turned away by the Israeli army, starving 
and killing even without firing a shot. Ethnic killings and apartheid 
continue, and deportations will follow.

And there is a "reconstruction" plan. But beware, it's not about 
restoring a territory after a war to make it habitable again. It's a 
colonial operation pure and simple. The project presented in Davos calls 
for the mass deportation of Gazans and the construction of a sort of 
luxury mega-riviera, in which the remaining Palestinians will serve as 
slave labor.

This plan is in the hands of the so-called "Board of Peace," presented 
at the World Economic Forum in Davos. An economic body that, although 
composed of heads of state, is in effect a completely private business 
committee. The BOP was created by Trump, and will be headed by him for 
life. It will not be chaired by the US president, but by Trump, even 
when his term expires. Trump, the real estate speculator, has invited 
high-profile figures like Orban and Milei to join, along with 
representatives of states with immaculate reputations like Kazakhstan, 
Uzbekistan, Turkey, Morocco, Qatar, the Emirates, and Pakistan, who have 
accepted, and China and Russia, who have not-yet?-accepted. Russia, 
which is under international sanctions for the war against Ukraine. Plus 
many others, including Israel, the state that made this grand bargain 
possible with its army. But it's not important to know exactly who is on 
it, especially since its composition varies. A permanent seat costs a 
billion dollars, and it's no coincidence that the price is so high: 
those who are on it will make the key decisions and reap stratospheric 
dividends. The significant thing in itself is that this body was 
created. The Board of Peace shatters all the illusions nurtured by many, 
from the late twentieth century to the present, about the role of 
international law, democracy, and supranational bodies. Of course, the 
UN and international law were already largely discredited as regulators 
of disputes, but they retained a certain formal, if not substantive, 
authority. Now Trump, a consummate businessman, is shelving this now 
useless instrument and inventing a new one, based, as mentioned, on 
private and entrepreneurial logic, under his exclusive control. This 
body will manage Gaza like a master: it will be able to conclude 
contracts, acquire and use assets, receive public funds-we're talking 
about $100 billion-and private investment capital-around $40-60 
billion-to channel them to companies selected by the Board of Peace 
itself. One might think that, if the criterion for selecting the 
permanent members of the board is the payment of a sum of money, the 
criterion for selecting companies will not be much different.

It's also important for those of us who live in Italy and Europe to 
consider the roles of the EU and the Italian government. The EU 
governments that have not joined have done so for "bureaucratic" and 
formal reasons of international law, certainly not out of moral 
reservations or a sense of justice. This international law has, in 
effect, already been rendered worthless by the very creation of the BOP 
and, even before that, by the double standards applied to International 
Criminal Court convictions and the application of sanctions. We can be 
certain of this by reading the statements of the heads of state and 
governments who refused, but also considering that the EU was one of 
Israel's greatest supporters in the genocidal war against the people of 
Gaza. The Italian government, for its part, has decided to participate 
as an "observer"-like the EU Commission itself-because the Italian 
Constitution apparently prohibits participation in international bodies 
except on an equal basis with other members. No big deal: the Italian 
government and defense industries are already deeply implicated in the 
genocide and devastation of Gaza, having unreservedly provided political 
support to the Israeli government and armaments to its army. Not being a 
full member of the BOP may exclude Italy from the biggest deals, but 
there's no doubt that some bones will fall from the bosses' table.

Beneath the bosses is the operational arm. I'm not referring to the 
Executive Council, but to the "committee of technocrats" tasked with 
directing the work on the ground in Gaza. The name itself says it all, 
but the name of its leader tells us even more. It's Ali Shahat, former 
deputy minister of the Ramallah government of the Palestinian National 
Authority. A Quisling, he leads a team of Palestinian collaborators, 
with the immediate task of clearing the rubble to open the field to the 
businesses of the BOP members and allow the construction of the 
mega-riviera. According to an interview Shahat himself gave to an 
Italian newspaper, the rubble will most likely be pushed into the sea 
with everything it contains-stones, metals, bomb residue, and 
bodies-solving two problems at once: widening the beach and clearing the 
ruins. The environmental and human costs involved are unknown.

In all this, Palestinians will, as already mentioned, serve as cheap 
labor, first in the clearing and construction work and later in the 
tourism services. Those who remain will be, because hundreds of 
thousands of them are scheduled for deportation, under the disgusting 
name of voluntary transfer. And that Palestinian officials, one of whom 
is already a member of the PA government, are part of all this tells us 
two things: that we need to stop talking about the Palestinian people, 
because this term would also include that class of officials, 
businessmen, bureaucrats, and politicians who do business and 
collaborate with the POP and Israel, with the blood of their own 
"people," those who are not part of the elite class, but of the 
proletariat, with interests totally opposed to those of the elite. 
Furthermore, that the solution of a Palestinian state, supported by so 
many people often in good faith, is a total failure. Not only for those, 
like me and many who read this newspaper, who are anarchists and opposed 
to all states. Not only for purely technical considerations such as 
territorial fragmentation and limited sovereignty, which can only lead 
to laying the foundations for new wars. Especially since the embryo of 
such a state would be the government of the Palestinian National 
Authority, the same corrupt class from which the collaborator-in-chief, 
Shahat, emerges.

In conclusion, the "Board of Peace" is nothing but a group of 
colonialist exploiters, organizing themselves with powerful tools to 
profit from death and suffering, in a way that is not entirely new in 
human history, but is new in the number and quality of the actors 
involved and the long-term consequences. Comparisons to hyenas and 
vultures might come to mind, but they would be unfair: these animals, 
after all, have a beneficial role in ecosystems, while the Board of 
Peace aims only to extract wealth from a terrible tragedy. If the Gaza 
operation were to bear the desired fruit, the same would happen in other 
regions requiring "pacification." Ukraine comes to mind, but we don't 
necessarily have to look at conflicts already underway. The Board of 
Peace members themselves are the biggest warmongers on the planet, and 
in this way they will be able to start conflicts and then profit from 
the consequences, creating jobs for themselves. The BOP is the spearhead 
of predatory capitalism, which thrives on the violent appropriation of 
territories and resources and the revenue derived from their possession. 
It is capitalism stripped of the democratic veneer that has camouflaged 
and protected it for decades. This veneer is no longer necessary, but is 
nevertheless constantly praised in the Newspeak of the new millennium. 
Therefore, if Malatesta claimed that democracy is a caterpillar that 
never becomes a butterfly, I dare say that with the BOP, democracy has 
demonstrated itself to be nothing more than a horde of ravenous parasites.

If we really wanted to find a positive function in this dirty business, 
it would be that of having finally revealed what I was and what was 
capital, even to the most naive, even to the most staunchly democratic, 
eyes, making visible the latest transformation underway in capitalism, 
the transition from the already devastating neoliberalism to a new, 
openly colonial and predatory phase. All organized by the president of 
the "greatest democracy in the world."

J. Scaltriti

https://umanitanova.org/board-of-parasites-gaza-sfruttamento-coloniale-di-un-genocidio/
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