Gaza Enters 'Uncharted Era' of Foreign Guardianship, Says Article Not Mentioning Previous Ones
While The New Arab thoughtfully details how a proposed international trusteeship for Gaza marks a 'reshaping of Palestinian political authority since 1948,' it frames this as 'uncharted.' A quick glance at history (which, oddly, mainstream analysis often seems to miss) reveals Palestine, including Gaza, has been under some form of foreign administration since at least the British Mandate in 1920,
and arguably dating back to Ottoman rule. 'Uncharted' is a peculiar word choice for a region that has rarely, if ever, seen true self-determination. This language choice seems to imply a deviation from a norm that never existed for Palestinians, sanitizing a continuous reality of external control, whether by empires, mandates, or today's 'international' proposals. One might wonder if the
'uncharted' nature refers to the newfound media attention rather than the actual historical reality. Perhaps it's 'uncharted' because this time, the world is watching, however belatedly, as 'guardianship' is debated over a pile of rubble. It’s not uncharted; it’s just the same old map being redrawn with different colored pencils, again.