Gaza reconstruction must be part of Palestinian-led decolonization, not a capitalist American show: Ilan Pappe

Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has long been one of the strongest voices in favor of Palestinian decolonization.

Now, since US President Donald Trump first proposed depopulating the Gaza Strip to rebuild it after over 15 months of Israeli attacks, Pappe has also been a vocal opponent of the plan.

“We have to make sure that this (reconstruction of Gaza) is not an American show. It’s not a capitalist show. It’s part of a Palestinian-led project of decolonization,” Pappe said in an interview with Anadolu.

“America and its multinational corporations and so on want to be part of it because they want to make money out of it, unfortunately. It’s not just a humanitarian wish to help to rebuild Gaza.”

According to Pappe, the absence of a unified Palestinian national movement means “the Palestinians have to be very careful that this whole project of reconstruction is not done in a way that is meant to benefit the reconstructors, rather than the victims of the genocide.”

While acknowledging the importance of humanitarian relief, he stresses that reconstruction must go beyond mere rebuilding — it must be political. This means greater unity in the Palestinian cause and more support from the Muslim world and Global South, “most politically, not just economically,” he said.

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He also called on civil societies in the Global North to move beyond symbolic gestures and push their governments to enact real policy changes.

“We should hope that in the next 10 years, also some of the civil societies in the Global North would be able finally to influence their governments’ policies and not just show solidarity with the Palestinians,” he added.

‘Collapse of the Zionist project’

Pappe believes decolonization in Palestine has already begun, but Israel is doing everything in its power – and with “no inhibitions” – to prevent it.

“One of their ideas is that in order to prevent the collapse of the Zionist project, Israel has to be a regional power. It’s not enough to control the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel will have to control also parts of western Syria, the south of Lebanon,” he said.

“It has to be regarded as a fearsome regional power, so that everybody would want to be its ally either out of fear or out of interest. I don’t think it will work, but on the way to do it, this can lead to a lot of carnage and destruction.”

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Pappe says Trump has his sights set on a Nobel Peace Prize for resolving conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“He really believes that he would be remembered also for ending both the war in the Ukraine and moving, somehow, forward the peace process in the Middle East or in West Asia,” said the historian.

A key aspect of Trump’s Middle East strategy revolves around the “biggest trophy” of normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudis will insist on some sort of quid pro quo. It will not be exactly the creation of a Palestinian state. I don’t think it will go as far as that, but what they would want to see is a commitment by the Americans to the two-state solution and the beginning of a process of negotiations.”

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However, within Israel, the political climate remains resistant: “You need a very significant change in the domestic politics in Israel to move in such a direction. The current mood and political constellation in Israel is against any discussion on the two-state solution.”

Still, he highlighted that Washington has leverage over Tel Aviv, pressuring Israeli leadership to accept the Gaza ceasefire last month despite fierce opposition by far-right elements in the government.

“My guess is what we will have is, maybe, some symbolic actions towards Saudi Arabia, towards the idea of the two-state solution. But in essence, nothing would change dramatically.”

Two-state solution is ‘a dead corpse’

For Pappe, the idea of a two-state solution is ‘a dead corpse’ and no longer viable.

“The reality on the ground makes it impossible,” he said, adding that no global power, be it the US, Europe, UN, Russia, China, or India, can change that.

He argues that international recognition of Palestine should not be mistaken for a genuine path toward statehood. “What these recognitions mean is that, contrary to the Israeli wish to totally wipe out Palestine as an idea and to wipe out the Palestinian people, Palestine is still there in the recognition level.

“But it’s not a recognition of something real in terms of a state.”

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According to Pappe, the world now faces only two possibilities: “The continued apartheid state that we have today, or its replacement by one democratic state.”

While he acknowledges there could be variations of a one-state solution, he asserts that most proponents of the two-state model cling to it out of political “inertia” but eventually, will “have to come to terms with the idea that the two-state solution is dead.”

“The reality on the ground makes it impossible to talk about a real Palestinian state. I mean, you can have what you have today, a small Bantustan that claims to be a state, and that’s the best you can get from a two-state solution,” he added.

Need for unified Palestinian leadership

Pappe also pointed out the lack of cohesion in the Palestinian national movement.

“Presently, the Palestinian national movement is in disarray. It’s disunited. It is fragmented. It doesn’t have proper representative bodies that are functioning,” he said.

He argues that without a unified national movement now, international solidarity efforts will struggle to translate into real change. “They’re sending aid as much as they can to the people in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine, but they cannot aid a political program because there is no political program.”

However, he remains hopeful that the younger Palestinian generation will step up to fill this gap.

“I know there’s a lot of initiatives among the young generation, so we have to be hopeful that some of them would mature soon and would reorganize the Palestinian national movement and create a united, democratic representative body that the solidarity movement could exhaust the potential that is shown to make it a transformative force on the ground.”

Another key development that could shape the future, he said, is the increasing disillusionment with Zionism among young Jews, including in the US.

“There is a very significant change among young Jews, including young Jews in America, who see themselves, not only as people who are not defined anymore by Zionism, but actually quite a few of them believe that they have the duty to be part of the solidarity movement with the Palestinians,” he said.

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