Blair ‘honoured’ to sit on Gaza board

The appointment of Tony Blair to preside over the rehabilitation of Gaza on a “board of peace” has raised eyebrows, including among Palestinians struggling to rebuild their lives in the shattered enclave.

The White House last week named Blair as one of the board’s founding executive members, alongside the US secretary of state Marco Rubio, special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

While Blair said he was “honoured” by the appointment, the former prime minister is a divisive figure among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world, where his legacy is badly tainted by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In Gaza, the make-up of the board drew mistrust. “They cooperate with Israel and take orders from Israel,” said Mohammed al-Masri, a 23-year-old software developer who is currently displaced and living in Khan Yunis. “They are the ones who approved the genocide that befell us.”

Blair in particular was unsuitable to sit on the board, he added, because of his role in the “destruction and plunder of Iraq’s wealth”.

Amed Khan, an American philanthropist who has delivered millions of dollars’ worth of medicine and child nutrition to Gaza, said it was telling that none of the appointees had a background in relief and humanitarian assistance. “Either they [who appointed the board] don’t care, or the people who could be helpful don’t want to be anywhere near it,” he said.

The board will be chaired by Trump and is tasked with “providing strategic oversight, mobilizing international resources and ensuring accountability”. It faces huge challenges. Three months after a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect, Israel continues to carry out deadly strikes across Gaza as well as restricting deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Despite that, the White House announced last week it was embarking on the next phase of its 20-point plan to end the war, including one of the thorniest issues: the disarmament of Hamas. Trump last week warned of “severe consequences” if the group refused to comply.

The day-to-day governance of Gaza will be handled by a separate 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee led by Ali Sha’ath, a Palestinian from Gaza who previously held a number of positions in the Palestinian Authority, the main political rival of Hamas.

Under the plan, the committee will eventually hand over power to a reformed Palestinian Authority, leading a “credible path to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects any notion of statehood or the involvement of the Palestinian Authority.

Eighteen years after leaving Downing Street, Blair still has powerful contacts in the region – including Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and King Abdullah of Jordan. Blair has known Netanyahu since the 1990s.

After meeting on the Manhattan party circuit almost two decades ago, Blair and Kushner reconnected at the christening of Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng’s daughters, Grace and Chloe. Their relationship deepened after Trump entered the White House in 2016 and made Kushner a senior adviser with wide-ranging responsibilities including in the Middle East.

Interviewing Blair on stage at a conference in 2019, Kushner described the former prime minister as “a good friend to me and a good adviser on a lot of these issues”. The next year, Blair helped Kushner bring the UAE on board in his drive for Arab nations to normalise relations with Israel, known as the Abraham accords.

Other members of the board – dubbed by Trump “the Greatest and Most Prestigious ever assembled at any time, any place” – include Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; World Bank Group president Ajay Banga; and Robert Gabriel, a US deputy national security adviser. Further appointments will be made in the coming weeks, the White House said.

Photograph by Victoria Jones/PA Wire