The fund set up by the World Bank for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has received no funding, despite pledges totaling $17 billion from the US and other world leaders, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing four sources familiar with the matter.
“Zero dollars have been deposited,” one source said.
The board has received donations, but they have been deposited directly via its JPMorgan account, according to the board’s spokesperson.
“A number of options were established to receive funding,” a Board of Peace official told the FT. “At this point, contributors have opted to use other options.”
The JPMorgan account is under no obligation to report its financial position to contributors and board members, unlike the World Bank, as FT wrote.
BoP to report financials at appropriate time
The Board of Peace has committed to reporting its financials to its own executive board “at a time deemed appropriate,” the official said.
Morocco has contributed about $20mn, which has helped fund the office of Nickolay Mladenov, the “high representative” for postwar Gaza, and salaries for the Palestinian technocratic committee formed by the board to govern Gaza, FT reported.
Additionally, the United Arab Emirates contributed $100mn dedicated to training a new police force for Gaza, but the funds are frozen, and the program has not started, FT cited two people familiar with the matter as saying.
The US State Department has committed to reallocate about $1.2B of aid spending for projects on the board’s agenda, but the funds have not yet been spent.
“None of that money is being managed by the Board of Peace, and State tells us there’s no intent to have any of that money managed by the Board of Peace,” a senior congressional aide told FT.
The state department wants to provide about $50 mn directly to the board, but that has not been distributed, with officials assuring Congress that the board will not be able to use the funds without the systems necessary to receive US funds in place, the congressional aide told FT.
The state department said it “supports the president’s vision,” and “continues to evaluate how existing authorities, programs and inter-agency co-ordination can best support those objectives,” the FT wrote.
The board’s spokesperson said that while the board has begun tendering for security and reconstruction work, no contracts have been awarded yet.
“A lot of it is because we’re not operating in Gaza yet,” the spokesperson told FT, as Hamas has not yet been disarmed.
Trump originally laid out a plan with multiple phases calling for the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
However, no progress has been made on any of those objectives, FT wrote, adding that two people familiar with Gaza planning said “not one US dollar” has been deployed for Gaza reconstruction.
Lack of systems to process funding
Dr. Bishara Bahbah, a prominent Palestinian-American scholar who helped negotiate with Hamas for the Trump administration, said that the committee has not yet started work within Gaza because of a “lack of any funding to enable them to execute anything on the ground.”
“They know that if they go to Gaza, people are going to flood to them to ask for assistance, and they have no tools, no means,” said Bahbah to FT.
The board’s spokesperson said that there was no system in place “to handle the flow of services and goods that are imagined as part of the plan.”
