Senior Palestinian officials have demanded that US President Donald Trump disallow former UK prime minister Sir Tony Blair from leading the Board of Peace, claiming to the Telegraph on Friday that such a move would be turning Gaza into a Western colony.
The Palestinian officials said that a Western board administering the Gaza Strip would be a return to the days of the British Mandate.
Blair, who helped Trump conceive the idea of a body to maintain long-term supervision of the Palestinian territory once Hamas is removed from power, is the only member of the board named so far.
Legitimacy crisis in Palestinian governance
Part of the reluctance in accepting Blair, the officials said, came from the legitimacy crisis that would stem from a non-Palestinian group exercising executive power over the Gaza Strip while Palestinians would only be allowed a subordinate role.
“That cannot happen,” said Nasser al-Qudwa, the nephew of Yasser Arafat and a leading contender to head the technocratic committee. “Only a Palestinian can govern Palestinian territory. You cannot import a Westerner to do that – especially a Brit, given our experience of the Mandate.”
“We suffered from colonialism for years on end,” added Sabri Saidam, the deputy secretary-general of the Fatah Central Committee. “Any external governing body is a resurrection of old-school colonialism. That’s not going to fly. Blair and others must understand it is impossible for Palestinians to accept any imported personality as governor, ruler or whatever.”
Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative, told the Telegraph, “You can keep Mr. Blair for yourselves in Britain… We don’t need him. His reputation in Iraq is not helpful. His personal reputation is not helpful. The fact that he stayed here for eight years leading the Quartet and doing nothing is not helpful. So why do we need Blair? We are capable of running our own affairs.”
“Everyone was consulted except the Palestinians,” Barghouti added. “How can you make a plan for people without even consulting them?”