Why would Israeli entity seek to empty Gaza? Are there any economic objectives that can explain this? Part 2

The Ben Gurion Canal

According to the Palestinian academic Professor Atif Kubursi, there are two other very important projects that both of them ultimately would argue that “Israel” needs to empty Gaza for them, and the Israelis are seeking basically to make sure that these projects that had come on the drawing board be implemented.

“One of these projects is the Ben Gurion Canal, which was conceived and came as an option that the Israelis were seeking prodded by the Americans during 1960 when Nasser in 1956 nationalized successfully the Suez Canal. The US had a secret document and study by an engineering firm that tendered another parallel canal that goes from Aqaba and on the Red Sea all the way to the Mediterranean. At that time, they were thinking of going to Ashkelon, but then they found out that this is not the shortest way. Even going to Ashkelon and creating this new canal that would compete with the Suez Canal would remain under threat of -in their view- the Palestinian guns. It’s so close to them and it’s going to be in a geological area which is quite sandy. One of the issues with the Suez Canal that it is in a sandy area and it’s narrow and it’s not deep enough and needs continuous dredging. And the continuous dredging means that you need high cost of maintenance to operate it. And, one thing about the Suez Canal is that it’s about 190 kilometers long. It’s narrow. It’s 100 meters wide and this means that traffic going from the south to north would have to be excluding any traffic coming from the north-south. There is only one way traffic. The Ben Gurion Canal is conceived to be 200 meter wide, which means there could be two-way traffic. So, they don’t have to wait until the ships travel from the south to the north. The two ways could be used simultaneously,” the professor said.

He went on to say: “ The Ben Gurion Canal is deeper and being near Gaza or through Gaza it will be in the rocky geological structure, which means it needs less maintenance. To a great extent, these were superb factors to consider and incentives for creating it. But more importantly, if you are able to empty Gaza, you’ll have full control. The issue here is that the viability and the advantage of the Ben Gurion Canal would only become realistic and implementable, only to the extent that you can go through Gaza and prevent Gazans from exercising any sovereignty or natural national power to share or to prevent the Israelis from exploiting it. It seems to another reason if it’s so deep and so wide, it will take larger ships. Now, the Americans and the Europeans want to control the Pacific and they see China as an emerging contestant. They are trying to emasculate or reduce and constrain the vitality and the projection of power of the Chinese, they need to move naval assets that are large.

The Suez Canal literally saves 4,000 nautical miles. If you take a line from Mumbai in India all the way to London, it’s about 7,000 nautical. If you have to go through around Africa, around South Africa, it’s more than 11,000 nautical miles. So literally….It could get worse when you go to Greece or you go to Italy and you go to Germany and other places. So, to a great extent it saves around 3 weeks of sailing. It reduces the cost by over 30%. People right now with some of the problems of having to go through the Red Sea and the altercation with the Yemenis, they are paying a much higher bill to deliver these goods and services. 12% of the world trade,  30% of the container trade, and billions of dollars go through the Suez Canal. It is also a main thoroughfare to transport not only Chinese and Indian products and Japanese products to Europe and other places, it is also a main passageway for energy from the Gulf into the European markets. The oil from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and UAE and Oman all passes through this. Maybe about 20% of total traded energy is going through this canal. So, to a great extent the Israelis are trying to float this, and in 2021 they were even declaring they’re going to start the implementation of this canal,”  he clarified.

This project would totally- if not in a fundamental way- undermine the Suez Canal. Suez Canal is about 2% of the Egyptian GDP. In 2021, the latest numbers they made $9.4 billion through the fees, through passage fees that go. So, to a great extent, the Israelis are vying to take this away from Egypt. There are pictures on the drawing map that the Israelis have conceived of their plans of major tourist cities all along the canal, just as much as the Panama Canal have been exploited in this direction.

“So, to a great extent here, I cannot for the life of me as an economist, who believes that economic factors are very important motivation for people and for nations, to completely dismiss, or to disregard the importance of this project for the Israelis and for the parties that are supporting them,” the professor asserted.

Israelis use the war on Gaza as a testing lab of weapons

The Israelis are using the war on the Gaza Strip and the blood of women and children as a testing lab of their weapons and their new systems, the Palestinian academic Professor Atif Kubursi affirmed.

He made it clear that the new drones and what they call artificial intelligence in finding things are evidences of what he said.

ICJ

Prof. Kubursi believes that the International Court of Justice is the legal organization through which the Palestinians could request that they are party to these natural resources.

“We are really taking the Israelis with the help of South Africa for the genocide case, but we can also take them for the illegal exploitation of resources against the international law, International humanitarian law and the human rights of the Palestinians because the Geneva Convention and the one before it: the Hauge Convention, all say that the occupier has no right to use the resources of the occupied except in the interest of the occupied people. The Israelis have controlled these resources for their own interest. They are financing their occupation. It’s a very simple thing that the convention is as clear as one can be about the fact that natural resources in the occupied territories are the preserve and the right to them, only to the people who are under occupation. The occupier is in violation of these rules and laws and should really compensate the Palestinians back,” the professor said.

He concluded by saying: “I cannot dismiss, underestimate or minimize the economic motivation, objectives, incentives exercised by the Israelis and their collaborating partners from Europe and the United States. The issue is not politics or economics. It is political economy. I mean there is a mantra that now we can think that economics without politics has no fruits, politics without economics has no roots. The two are intertwined… The economic factors have to be uncovered and have to always be considered as fundamental part of any problem or solution.”

Basma Qaddour