Today, while Palestinian CSOs explore ways to survive and face and confront the causes and impacts of the shrinking space at the practical, strategic, political and ethical levels, the time is ripe for the declaration of a Gaza Covenant/Charter/Manifesto to be led by the Palestinian civil society. The Gaza Covenant aims to ensure dignity, self-determination and local ownership in the day after for Gaza, and indeed beyond. It aims at reversing decades of one-way conditionality attached to the delivery of aid that stripped the Palestinians of the political agency and ownership of their present and future. The Gaza Covenant would offer guidance for any external intervention to be based on principles, priorities, and prescriptions set by the Palestinians themselves, and it would be a covenant that articulates a Palestinian vision by Palestinians and for Palestinians to follow, abide by, and contribute to. If the Palestinians themselves don’t ensure their dignity in their own development, no one will.

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