Op-Ed by Emily Thompson
At some point, the war in Gaza will come to an end, Hamas will lose military and governing control over the enclave, Israel will bring home its hostages, and the Palestinian people will begin to rebuild.
Analysts say it will cost billions to rebuild Gaza, given the amount of destruction that has taken place there since the IDF launched its full-scale ground invasion counterattack against Hamas on Oct. 27, three weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
The question is where will the funds to rebuild Gaza come from? It might be interesting to look at what the U.S. is doing in Ukraine.
One of U.S. President Joe Biden’s priorities at the G7 summit in Italy this week is to solidify an agreement that could provide some $50 billion to Ukraine using profits from frozen Russian assets.
Diplomats confirmed that an agreement had been reached on the deal before the leaders even landed in southern Italy for the three-day summit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be on hand and is expected to sign a separate bilateral security agreement with Biden.
What this means is that Ukraine would receive aid using Russian funds instead of American taxpayer dollars. This sounds fair, especially since it was Russia that launched the war. Is it not common sense then that it would help the Ukrainians pay for it?
This same logic should be applied to Gaza.
It is well-documented that Hamas leaders stole billions of dollars in global aid meant for the Palestinian people. In fact, Hamas’ top three leaders have a whopping net worth of over $11 billion. Aside from spending hundreds of millions of dollars building miles of concrete tunnels under Gaza, Hamas leaders stole massive amounts of aid and funneled it into their private bank accounts. Hamas runs an office in Qatar’s capital, Doha, and leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, as well as deputy chair of the Hamas Political Bureau Moussa Abu Marzouk all maintain a luxurious lifestyle there, while many ordinary Palestinians live in poverty.
A report by MSN notes that, in addition to creating personal wealth, Hamas assets are often used to compensate jailed terrorists or their families, with payments ranging from $400 per month for those serving up to three years, to $3,400 per month for those serving 30 years or more. This in a region where 60 per cent of Palestinians live under the international poverty line of $60 per month, according to a report by the Mackenzie Institute.
There are some differences of course between Russian and Hamas assets.
Regarding Ukraine, the U.S. proposal involves using profits from the roughly $260 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets, most of them held in the European Union, to help Ukraine, and issuing a $50 billion loan from the U.S. government to Kyiv, using windfall profits from the immobilized funds as collateral.
However, there are still some technical and legal details of the mechanism to tap into the assets still had to be worked out. The issue is complicated because if the Russian assets one day are unfrozen — say if the war ends — then the windfall profits will no longer be able to be used to pay off the loan, requiring a burden-sharing arrangement with other countries.
But this problem does not exist with regard to Hamas.
Since the Hamas leaders stole money from the aid donated by the international community, the funds still essentially belong to the international community which now has the right to reclaim the money and redirect it once again to rehabilitating Gaza and supporting the Palestinian people.
The U.S. has taken some steps to stem the flow of funds to Hamas as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen noted after the Oct. 7 massacre.
“The U.S. Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance, and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas,” she said. “We will continue to take all steps necessary to deny Hamas terrorists the ability to raise and use funds to carry out atrocities and terrorize the people of Israel. That includes by imposing sanctions and coordinating with allies and partners to track, freeze, and seize any Hamas-related assets in their jurisdictions.”
This is a good step in the right direction, but unfortunately, it is not enough.
The leaders of Hamas should be given an ultimatum: give us back the money you stole and remain free or we will take it anyway and put you in prison.
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