The US Must Stop Asphyxiating Cuba Now

 

People paticipate in a rally against the US embargo in Santa Clara, Cuba on April 25, 2021.

(Photo by Joaquin Hernandez/Xinhua via Getty)

A. Shallal

Cuba should not be treated as a political chess piece to demonstrate US economic and military might.

Feb 05, 2026Common Dreams

Since the Cuban Revolution overthrew a US-backed dictatorship and asserted national independence, Cuba has remained in the United States’ crosshairs. The country has endured nearly 600 assassination attempts against its leadership, along with countless covert and overt operations aimed at destabilizing its government. For more than six decades, the US has also imposed an economic embargo explicitly designed to bring about regime change.

By any honest measure, this policy has failed. What it has succeeded in doing is fostering deep resentment toward the United States, not only in Cuba, but across much of the world, while inflicting immense suffering on ordinary Cubans.

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Basic necessities such as food, paint, printing paper, baby formula, syringes, and other lifesaving supplies, including vaccines and cancer treatment drugs, are either restricted by the embargo or priced far beyond most people’s reach. A simple walk through Havana tells the story: crumbling infrastructure, uncollected trash, and growing numbers of people gathering near tourist areas, hands outstretched in desperation.

Fuel shortages are widespread, inflation is at historic highs, and a sharp decline in tourism, Cuba’s primary economic lifeline, has made daily life nearly unbearable for many.

It is time for the United States to respect Cuba’s sovereignty and lift the embargo and accompanying sanctions.

In response, the Cuban government has expanded the private sector, legalized small- and medium-sized enterprises, decentralized food production, and opened its markets to limited foreign investment, all while attempting to maintain the core socialist principles of the revolution. It has also reduced reliance on fossil fuels, slowly shifting to solar energy. In 2025, renewable energy accounted for more than 10% of Cuba’s energy consumption, an increase from 3% the year before.

Yet these measures alone cannot offset the outsize impact of US policy and the blockade, which has been dramatically tightened in recent months. The latest effort to cut off of nearly all oil shipments to the island has led to daily blackouts and deepened human suffering.

It is time for the United States to respect Cuba’s sovereignty and lift the embargo and accompanying sanctions. They are a cruel and inhumane form of collective punishment that disproportionately harms the most vulnerable. These sanctions, without legitimate justification, have restricted travel for Americans, made remittances far more difficult, and unjustly placed Cuba on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. That designation effectively cuts the country off from the global banking system, making even basic international transactions nearly impossible. The absurdity is stark: Cuban biotechnology produced five globally used Covid-19 vaccines, while the US embargo restricted Cuba’s ability to purchase syringes to administer them.

Cuba should not be treated as a political chess piece to demonstrate US economic and military might. It is a proud nation of nearly 11 million people who want nothing more than to be good neighbors. It is time for the United States to end its asphyxiation of Cuba and allow the Cuban people to determine their own future, a future free from US interference, coercion, and perpetual threat.

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A. Shallal

A. Shallal is the founder and CEO of Busboys and Poets.

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To Stand Against US Aggression, the World Must Rise for Cuba

 

 

Cuban soldiers take part in the Torchlight March on the 173rd anniversary of National Hero Jose Marti (a leader of Cuba’s independence from Spain and founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) in Havana on January 27, 2026. Thousands of Cubans, mostly young people, marched in Havana on January 27 night in protest against US threats against the Caribbean island during the traditional ‘torchlight march’.

(Photo by Adalberto Roque / AFP via Getty Images)

The latest escalation of the US blockade against Cuba — in the form of an executive order authorizing punitive tariffs on any country that dares supply oil to the island—is a cruel and criminal act of economic warfare that will bring nothing but starvation, deprivation, and despair to its people.

Cabinet of the Progressive International

Feb 04, 2026  Common Dreams

We will not mince words. The ‘policy’ of the Trump administration is a total siege: a modern mechanism for collective punishment designed to strangle life itself by cutting off fuel for hospitals, schools, water, transport, and food distribution.

Cuba already faces severe fuel shortages, with blackouts stretching daily and essential services collapsing under the weight of sanctions and depleted imports. Cuba’s remaining oil stocks could run out in mere weeks, threatening the lives of millions who have done nothing to justify this escalation.

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This is the culmination of a long-standing strategy articulated in US law — from the expansive embargo codified by the Helms–Burton Act in the 1990s to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations first enforced in the 1960s — that openly sought to apply “maximum pressure” to force political transformation in Havana and defeat a vanguard in the struggle against the US’s hemispheric domination.

Now, with this new Executive Order, the logic of siege has reached its apotheosis: sanction not only Cuba but every nation that dares show solidarity, effectively demanding that sovereign states choose between the interests of their own people and the dictates of an empire.

Cuba stood with oppressed peoples globally — from defeating apartheid in South Africa to sending doctors to the frontlines of epidemics — and now it is our time to act with audacity, moral courage, and collective force.

Already Mexico — Cuba’s last significant oil lifeline — has been pressed into uncertainty, warned that continued support could trigger tariffs on its economy. In doing so, Trump has revealed so-called ‘secondary sanctions’ as the empire’s principal weapon against international solidarity.

Trump has been clear: this siege is but a springboard toward regime change. It is the same strategic blueprint that saw Venezuela’s sovereignty undermined, its oil lifelines severed, its people plunged into crisis while the world stood by in lethargy.

We cannot repeat that failure. The international community was too slow to prevent the bombardment of Caracas; we must not be passive while the groundwork is laid for similar violence against the people of Cuba.

If Cuba is to survive as an independent nation it will be because of the continued resilience and vitality of its revolutionary project — and the solidarity of movements and nations around the world defying empire and rising to challenge this injustice.

We must organize community support networks, coordinate diplomatic resistance, demand that governments refuse to enforce secondary tariffs, and amplify Cuban voices against this assault on international law, human dignity, and basic human rights.

Those efforts, both from within and beyond the Progressive International, must accelerate — today. History will judge those who saw this moment and turned away. Cuba stood with oppressed peoples globally — from defeating apartheid in South Africa to sending doctors to the frontlines of epidemics — and now it is our time to act with audacity, moral courage, and collective force.

Stand with the Cuban people now; stand against this siege, this economic assault, this unfolding humanitarian disaster; join together in the provision of key supplies to the island, from medicine to food to fuel for its people; and stand for the right of all nations to self-determination and human dignity, or be complicit in its destruction.

Ex-Israeli defence minister likens ‘Jewish supremacy’ in the country to Nazism

 Moshe Ya’alon says ‘Jewish supremacy’ becoming entrenched and could lead to Israel’s destruction if not reversed

By Mera Aladam, MEE, 4 February 2026 15:38 GMT

Former Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon has compared what he described as Jewish supremacy in Israel to Nazi ideology.

Ya’alon – who, as chief of staff in 2002, said Palestinians posed a “cancer-like” threat – criticised rising settler violence in a post on X over the weekend.

The post was prompted by an attack last week by what he called “Jewish pogromists” against Palestinians near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, in which settlers stole Palestinian-owned sheep and set property on fire.

He said “Jewish terrorists” blocked ambulances from reaching the area, delaying medical care for three Palestinians wounded in the attack, who were later taken to hospital.

Ya’alon added that despite the Israeli military telling him the incident was being handled, no action had been taken.

“No Jewish terrorist has been arrested (as in many other cases), because Israel’s police are controlled by a convicted criminal, a racist and fascist Kahanist,” he said, referring to Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security.

He also alleged that the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, is controlled by a representative of “Jewish supremacy”, referring to David Zini, the newly appointed head of the agency.

‘The ideology of “Jewish supremacy”, which has become dominant in the Israeli government, resembles Nazi racial theory’

– Moshe Ya’alon, former Israeli defence minister

Zini, a former major general in the Israeli army and a religious Zionist, has previously described Palestinians as a “divine existential threat” and said that “our enemies are the enemies of the Holy One”.

Ya’alon further criticised the defence minister for preventing the use of administrative detention against “Jewish terrorists”, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who also holds a post in the defence ministry – for “encouraging illegal outposts and equipping them with off-road vehicles in order to make Palestinians’ lives unbearable, to the point of dispossessing them of their land and settling it with Jews”.

Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal.

“The ideology of ‘Jewish supremacy’, which has become dominant in the Israeli government, resembles Nazi racial theory,” Ya’alon said. 

He warned that should the next Israeli government not reverse course, the ideology of Jewish supremacy would “bring destruction upon our state”. 

“The ‘Jewish supremacy’ government – the government of lies and betrayal, the government of messianists, draft dodgers and the corrupt – must be replaced before ruin comes.”

‘Palestinians must be fought to bitter end’

Ya’alon has had a decades-long career in the Israeli military. He took part in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the violent suppression of the first and second Palestinian intifadas, and the 2014 war on Gaza.

He served as the army’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005 and as defence minister from 2013 to 2016.

Ethnic cleansing in Gaza: Why did a former Israeli army chief speak out?

Read More »

In 2002, Ya’alon said: “The Palestinian threat harbours cancer-like attributes that have to be severed and fought to the bitter end.”

In 2015, he barred Breaking the Silence – an NGO of former Israeli soldiers who document army abuses – from engaging in activities with the military.

In recent years, Ya’alon has adopted a more critical tone towards the current government, accusing it of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza in 2024.

“The path we are being dragged down is occupation, annexation and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip – population transfer, call it what you want, and Jewish settlements,” he said in an interview with the Israeli channel Democrat TV.

Israeli forces have killed over 71,800 Palestinians since October 2023 and destroyed nearly 90 percent of the territory’s infrastructure.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops and settlers during the same period, including 217 minors. 

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London witnesses one of its largest demonstrations since Gaza ceasefire

More than 100,000 march in support of Palestine and in rejection of the Trump-led ‘Peace Council’


Middle East Monitor, February 1, 2026 at 10:30 am


London witnessed one of the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations since the ceasefire agreement signed in October 2025, as more than 100,000 people took part in a mass march through central London. Protesters voiced their rejection of the so-called ‘Peace Council’ led by the administration of US President Donald Trump, renewed calls to end the genocide and ethnic cleansing, and demanded the release of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons.

The march drew a broad cross-section of the public, including British families, human rights campaigners, trade unionists, doctors, students, and members of the Arab and Muslim communities. Participants waved Palestinian flags and carried placards calling for accountability for war crimes and an end to UK arms exports to Israel.

The demonstration was called by the Palestine Solidarity coalition, bringing together several of Britain’s leading grassroots and advocacy organisations, including: Palestinian Forum in Britain, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Islamic Association of Britain, and Friends of Al-Aqsa. Organisers said the continued public mobilisation reflects widespread rejection across Britain of political proposals that bypass the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them the right to freedom, return, and an end to occupation.

Speakers on the main stage included prominent political, medical and cultural figures: Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ghassan Abu Sittah, John McDonnell MP, Juliet Stevenson, and representatives from several UK trade unions. Tariq Othman delivered remarks on behalf of the Palestinian Forum in Britain, while Samer Jaber spoke representing the Red Ribbons campaign calling for the release of Palestinian detainees.

In his address, Jeremy Corbyn stressed the importance of global solidarity in confronting injustice, saying events in Palestine cannot be treated as distant or marginal. He pointed to the presence of more than 3,509 administrative detainees among thousands of Palestinians held without charge or trial in Israeli prisons, describing the policy as a clear violation of international law. Corbyn also renewed his opposition to proposals from the Trump administration aimed at imposing control over Palestinian land, stating that: those who destroyed Gaza should bear the cost of rebuilding it; there can be no genuine peace without the return of Palestinian refugees to the villages from which they were displaced; ending genocide and ethnic cleansing must be an international priority.

READ: London: Tower Hamlets faith communities stop UKIP again

Red ribbons were distributed to tens of thousands of participants as part of a global campaign highlighting the plight of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. Organisers said the red colour symbolises the immediate danger facing prisoners amid administrative detention, torture, medical neglect and harsh conditions of confinement, adding that the issue will remain central to public action until all detainees are released.

Speaking to the crowd, Adnan Hmidan, coordinator of the Red Ribbons campaign, noted that the demonstration coincided with the first anniversary of the killing of the Palestinian child Hind Rajab. He said Hind was killed alongside members of her family and the paramedics who attempted to rescue her after more than 350 bullets were fired at the vehicle in which they had sought shelter, describing the incident as emblematic of the wider tragedy facing Palestinians. Hmidan said the core message of the demonstration was: “Not allowing the occupation to finish off what remains of the Palestinian people, particularly the detainees enduring extremely harsh conditions in some of the worst prisons on earth.”

Shaima Dallali spoke on behalf of the Muslim Association of Britain, focusing on the catastrophic humanitarian reality left in Gaza. She referred to the recent acknowledgement by Israeli authorities of the casualty figures announced by Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which exceed 70,000 people killed, stressing that each number represents an entire human story, a family that has lost its children and its future. She said the tragedy cannot be reduced to statistics, but remains an open wound on the human conscience.

The London march coincided with coordinated actions around the world highlighting the suffering of Palestinian detainees, with events taking place from the West Bank to Australia, as well as in Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Germany, South Korea, Mexico and elsewhere. Participants said the synchronised mobilisation reflects the growing breadth of international solidarity and rejection of attempts to normalise or obscure crimes committed against Palestinians.

Organisers stressed that the British public will remain present and vocal for as long as genocide continues, occupation persists, and freedom remains denied to a people who have paid the price of their steadfastness for more than seven decades.

𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐢 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐀𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧

 

A Saudi delegation will also visit the US in an effort to de-escalate tension in the Middle East

by Kyle Anzalone | January 29, 2026 at 2:52 pm ET

Senior Israeli defense officials met with top US officials to discuss a future conflict with Iran.
According to Axios, “The Israelis came to DC to share intelligence on possible targets inside Iran.” Israeli military intelligence chief Gen. Shlomi Binder led the Israeli delegation and met with US officials at the Pentagon for two days earlier this week.
US officials told the outlet that President Donald Trump is still considering an attack on Iran. One official with knowledge of the meetings said Bidner had brought intelligence that was requested by the President.
Late last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump to help Israel take out the government of Iran. The President is reported to be considering a range of options to cause regime change in Iran, including high-level strikes and an oil blockage.
Trump has ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East, including fighter jets, an aircraft carrier strike group, and advanced air defense systems. On Wednesday, Trump renewed the threat to attack Iran if Tehran does not agree to a nuclear deal with the US.
Iranian officials have stated they are willing to negotiate with the US if Trump stops threatening Iran. Additionally, Tehran has ruled out agreeing to eliminate its uranium enrichment program.
While Israel is pushing for Trump to start a war with Iran, other countries in the Middle East are trying to broker a deal. Turkey has offered to host talks with Iran. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman will meet with US officials in the Pentagon on Thursday. Axios notes that Ryiahd has been acting as a backchannel between Washington and Tehran.
Iran has threatened to retaliate against any attack by striking US bases across the Middle East.

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Trump to Iran: Agree to Nuclear Deal Or the US Will Attack

The President said there is now a large “armada” in the Middle East

 

by Kyle Anzalone | January 28, 2026 at 1:43 pm ET

President Donald Trump renewed his threats to attack Iran if the Islamic Republic does not comply with his demands. The President claimed that Iran must agree to a new nuclear deal or would be attacked by the “armada” Trump has assembled in the Middle East. 

“A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary,” the President wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.  

“Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!” He continued, “As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again.”

After returning to the White House, Trump tightened sanctions on Iran and threatened to attack the Islamic Republic if it did not agree to a deal that would limit or eliminate its civilian nuclear program. 

Tehran has stated that it is willing to agree to limitations and strict inspections of its nuclear program, but it will continue to enrich uranium. The President has asserted that Iran must completely eliminate its enrichment program. 

Prior to the unprovoked Israeli attack on Iran in June that ignited a 12-day conflict, Washington and Tehran were in the process of establishing a new nuclear agreement. When Trump ordered US forces to aid Israel and attack Iran, those negotiations failed. Iran has offered to return to the table if Trump stops threatening the Islamic Republic. 

Late last year, Trump renewed his threats on Iran, this time asserting that the US would attack the Islamic Republic if the government’s crackdown led to the deaths of protesters. While thousands died during the demonstration in Iran, Trump decided not to launch an attack. 

Trump declined to give the order to attack Iran out of concern that the planned strikes would fail to topple the government, and US troops in the Middle East and Israel would be vulnerable to counterattacks. 

Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group, fighter jets, and advanced air defense systems to the Middle East. The larger American military presence in the region will give the President additional options for attacking Iran and defeating counterattacks. 

Trump is reportedly considering a range of options for bringing about regime change in Iran, including an oil blockade and strikes on high-level targets in Tehran. 

Gaza is not a real estate fantasy

Trump and Kushner’s plans for Gaza are bound to fail. Here is why.

 

US President Donald Trump takes part in a charter announcement for his Board of Peace initiative on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

By Sultan Barakat

Professor in public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University,.

Published On 25 Jan 202625 Jan 2026

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By any measure, Gaza’s devastation demands urgent and serious reconstruction. Homes, hospitals, schools, farms, cultural heritage, and basic infrastructure lie in ruins. Entire neighbourhoods have been erased. The humanitarian need is undeniable. But urgency should never become an excuse for illusion, spectacle, or political shortcuts.

The contrast between rhetoric and reality could not be sharper. While United States President Donald Trump and a group of world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, to sign the charter of the so-called Board of Peace and unveil glossy reconstruction plans, the killing in Gaza continued.

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Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, no fewer than 480 Palestinians have been killed. Four of them were killed on the very day the charter was signed by 19 ministers and state representatives, many of whom were less interested in the issue of Gaza and much more in being seen alongside Trump.

Against that backdrop, the board’s carefully staged optimism feels like performance rather than transformation. It resembles a sandpit where those signing up get to build sandcastles with Trump that will wash away with the first real wave.

The proposals may look impressive and sound hopeful, but structurally, they are hollow. They sidestep the real drivers of the conflict, marginalise Palestinian agency, privilege Israeli military priorities over civilian recovery, and align uncomfortably with longstanding efforts to maintain the occupation, displace Palestinians, and deny the right of return for the population uprooted in 1948 and 1967.

Gaza is not a real estate prospectus

The glossy vision of presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner treats Gaza not as a traumatised society emerging from catastrophic violence, but as a blank investment canvas for luxury housing, commercial zones, data hubs, beachfront promenades, and aspirational gross domestic product (GDP) targets.

It reads less like a recovery plan and more like a real-estate prospectus. Development language replaces political reality. Sleek presentations replace rights. Markets replace justice.

But Gaza is not a failed start-up looking for venture capital. It is home to more than two million Palestinians who have endured siege, displacement, repeated wars, and chronic insecurity for decades. Reconstruction cannot succeed if it is detached from their lived experiences or if it treats Gaza primarily as an economic asset open to speculative investment, including by extreme Zionists, rather than as a human community struggling to preserve its identity and social fabric.

For many families, even modest homes in Gaza’s formal refugee camps represented a fragile bridge worth holding on to as a step towards an eventual return to places from which they were forced to flee, in what is today known as Israel.

These homes were valued not for their comfort or market worth, but for the social networks they sustained and their symbolic links to continuity, memory, and political claims. Palestinians are therefore unlikely to be swayed by offers of glitzy towers, luxurious villas, or promises of a “market economy” under siege. Their experience over the past decades has taught them that no level of material improvement can substitute for deeper aspirations tied to dignity, rootedness, and the right of return.

A future designed without Palestinians

A glaring flaw of Trump’s plan is the systematic exclusion of Palestinians themselves from shaping the vision of their future. These plans are unveiled in elite conference halls, not debated with the people whose neighbourhoods have been flattened.

Without Palestinian ownership, legitimacy collapses. Experience from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere has shown repeatedly that reconstruction imposed from the outside — however well branded — reproduces the very power imbalances that fuel instability in the first place.

Equally troubling is the plan’s deliberate avoidance of addressing the root causes of Gaza’s suffering: occupation, blockade, and military control. You cannot rebuild sustainably while continuing to preserve and fund the machinery that repeatedly destroys what is built.

No amount of concrete, branding, or foreign investment can substitute for political resolution. A territory that remains militarily besieged, economically sealed, and politically subjugated will never achieve durable recovery.

Prosperity cannot flourish inside a cage. The European Union learned this lesson the hard way through multiple reconstruction cycles it funded in Gaza, which may help explain why none of its members rushed to join the board, despite being able to afford the permanent membership fee and despite the political incentives of cultivating a more cordial relationship with Trump in light of the war in Ukraine and his threats on Greenland.

Aiding Israel’s military control through spatial redesign

There is also a serious risk that the proposed physical design of Gaza would entrench Israeli military strategy rather than restore Palestinian life. The plans envision buffer zones, segmented districts, and so-called “green spaces and corridors” that would break up the territory internally.

This kind of spatial engineering would facilitate surveillance, control, and rapid military access. Urban planning would become security architecture. Civilian geography would turn into militarised space. What is sold as modernisation would constitute a sophisticated system of containment, just like the illegal settlement networks and road systems in the occupied West Bank.

The emphasis on reclaiming land from the sea using rubble may repeat the problems of Beirut’s reconstruction after the civil war, where newly reclaimed areas attracted disproportionate investment because they were free of unresolved ownership claims, ultimately allowing elites to appropriate the city’s waterfront and pull it away from public use.

The demographic implications of the plan are equally profound. Shifting Gaza’s population centre southward — closer to Egypt and further from Israel’s settlements — would quietly alter the political and social centre of gravity of Palestinian life.

It may ease Israeli security anxieties, but it would do so at the expense of Palestinian continuity, identity, and territorial coherence. Population engineering under the banner of reconstruction raises serious ethical concerns and risks externalising Gaza’s long-term humanitarian burden onto neighbouring states. This may also help explain Egypt’s absence from the signing ceremony and its decision to limit participation to its intelligence leadership.

No amount of political theatre can replace freedom

The Board of Peace itself also deserves careful scrutiny. Its branding suggests neutrality and collective stewardship, yet its political framing remains highly personalised around Trump, with little clarity about how it is meant to operate in practice.

This is not the kind of multilateral peacebuilding mechanism envisaged by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 of November 2025; it is political theatre. Peace mechanisms anchored in personalities rather than institutions and international law rarely survive political change.

At the heart of all this lies a familiar but dangerous assumption: that economic growth can substitute for political rights. History teaches the opposite. People do not resist simply because they are poor; they resist because they lack dignity, security, freedom of expression, and self-determination. No master plan can bypass these realities. No skyline can compensate for political exclusion.

This does not mean Gaza must wait for the perfect peace before rebuilding. Recovery must proceed urgently. But rebuilding must empower Palestinians rather than redesign their constraints. It must dismantle systems of control, not embed them into concrete and zoning maps. It must confront the political roots of destruction rather than cosmetically repackage its aftermath.

Until those foundations exist, the Board of Peace and Kushner’s vision risk becoming exactly what they resemble — a form of sandcastle diplomacy: impressive to the global public, comforting to elites, and destined to wash away when the first serious wave of political reality arrives.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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• Sultan BarakatProfessor in public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University,Sultan Barakat is professor in public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, honourary professor at the University of York, and member of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute ICMD Expert Reference Group.