Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which vowed to help rebuild Gaza, has no real funding despite receiving billions of dollars in pledges, according to a new report.
The president formally announced the board in January. Countries could join by contributing $1 billion, and members included Azerbaijan, Israel, Qatar, and Bahrain.
Nine countries later pledged more than $9 billion toward a Gaza “relief package” for the war-torn territory following years of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
However, the Board of Peace’s World Bank-backed fund has still not received any substantial donor funding, four people familiar with the matter told The Financial Times. “Zero dollars have been deposited,” one source said.
Of the nine countries that pledged money to the relief package, only the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have actually sent any funds.
Morocco’s $20 million contribution has gone toward funding an office for Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian diplomat serving as “high representative” for post-war Gaza, as well as salaries for a Palestinian technocratic committee formed by the board to help govern the strip.
The UAE provided $100 million to train a new police force for Gaza, but the funds are currently frozen, and no progress has been made on the initiative, sources told the FT.
Elsewhere, the State Department pledged to redirect around $1.2 billion in aid toward projects linked to Trump’s Board of Peace. However, the money—which the board would not manage directly—has reportedly not yet been spent.
“None of that money [has gone to the board]. 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 the FT.
Sources also said that “not one U.S. dollar” has gone toward rebuilding Gaza, four months after Trump’s board was established.
A spokesperson for the board said it has yet to award contracts for security and reconstruction projects in the strip because “we’re not operating in Gaza yet,” citing Hamas’ refusal to disarm.
It was previously reported that several countries that pledged billions toward the board’s goals are reluctant to pay up because there has been little real progress in Gaza, even after a ceasefire agreement was reached. Trump’s war in Iran, which he started on Feb. 28, has also heightened those concerns.
“Nobody with money and resources wants to work with the Board of Peace,” a source told The Guardian. “Lump on the conflict with Iran, and the people with deep pockets now have an excuse not to pay.”
A spokesperson for the board also told the FT that a major issue with the funding effort is that there is no governing authority on the ground “to handle the flow of services and goods that are imagined as part of the plan.”
“We’re not, like, hoarding money in a bank account and then awarding contracts for things that can’t be delivered,” the spokesperson added.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the State Department for comment.
