Amidst the ongoing genocide in the occupied Palestinian Territory, over 190 civil society groups and human rights advocates have signed this joint statement to express our unequivocal denunciation of the World Bank's role as the limited Trustee for the BoP-associated Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for Gaza Reconstruction and Development (GRAD) and as a member of executive board of the Board of Peace (BoP).

The statement below highlights how the establishment of the BoP and proposed role in the reconstruction of Gaza stand in clear violation of international law, entrench Israel's illegal military occupation and denial of Palestinians’ inalienable right to self-determination, and provide a diplomatic cover for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The plans envisioned under the BoP facilitate an agenda of furthering the physical, cultural, social and economic uprooting, as well as attempted erasure, of approximately two million Palestinians from their ancestral lands. Through asserting a settler colonial, imperialist and neoliberal approach, these plans consider Gaza in isolation from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and as a blank slate, a captive investment opportunity for architectural and landscape re-engineering. By enabling the usurpation of land and plundering of resources, the plans being proposed deny the rights of Palestinians to define the necessary steps forward for recovery and reconstruction of their own communities.

Collectively, we are calling on the World Bank management to:

• Urgently withdraw the institution from the BoP and take immediate steps to terminate the GRAD FIF;
• Publicly recognize the illegitimacy of any imposed reconstruction framework, and that rebuilding of peoples’ lives and livelihoods in Gaza cannot begin until Israeli Occupation Forces end the genocide of Palestinians and their illegal, decades-long occupation, siege, blockade and system of apartheid, in full compliance with the ICJ Provisional Measures and Advisory Opinions along with international human rights and humanitarian law;
• Publicly promote and advocate for Palestinian-led reconstruction frameworks – including the Phoenix Plan – as the legitimate basis for any future process;
• Publicly condemn the reprisals – including but not limited to US-initiated sanctions – against Palestinian human rights defenders and their allies, as per the World Bank’s commitment to zero tolerance for reprisals, and
• Cooperate with UN Special Procedures, and avoid participating in structures that undermine the UN multilateral system.