Two South Carolina friends -- a Republican ex-governor who helped the World Food Program win the Nobel Peace Prize, and the other a Democrat who once ran for governor -- are starting a landmark humanitarian project for Palestinian children in Gaza.
Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley was President Donald Trump's appointee to lead the WFP from 2017-23, during which time the organization won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. Tech entrepreneur Phil Noble ran for governor in 2018 and founded nonprofit World Class Scholars in Charleston, bringing internet and computers to the poorest schools in America and over 100 countries worldwide. Beasley is Scholars' chairman.
The two are launching 50 solar-powered tent schools in Gaza where the United Nations says 97 percent of schools have been destroyed since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The tent schools will have computers using StarLink for the internet.
Philanthropists from the United Arab Emirates are financing the project, Noble told The Post and Courier.
Beasley, governor from 1995-99, is so well-regarded that Israeli officials worked hard to convince him to lead Israel's controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. He declined.
The Scholars effort comes at a time when the ceasefire is fragile and Gaza remains dangerous for aid workers and children. Amnesty International counts 347 Gazans killed since the ceasefire was declared.
Beasley believes his bipartisan friendships can help build bridges in the Middle East. And at the World Food Program, he was successful getting life-saving supplies into war zones.
"I was the guy who talked with the Houthis, the Taliban, Hamas, the IDF, the people that control an area," Beasley told an audience of Nobel-winning economists in August. "You'll get these folks high on their white horses and ivory towers saying: you shouldn't be doing that. I'm like: go tell that to children who are starving to death."
What Jewish and Palestinian families share
Palestinians are eager to get their children back to school in Gaza. The impoverished land historically has had a high literacy rate around 98 percent, according to the World Bank.
World Class Scholars signed a memo of understanding with nonprofit Anera, which has staff and volunteers in Gaza, to equip the tent schools. Anera workbooks and textbooks for English, math, science and Arabic have been scrutinized by Israeli, American and UN agencies for fairness and accuracy, said Sulieman Mleahat, the organization's education director.
Mleahat said Anera doesn't work with Gaza's education ministry because it was run by Hamas.
"Palestinian and Jewish families share a passion for education," Mleahat said.
In 2024, Sulieman said Gaza’s temporary learning centers served about half the 650,000 kindergarten through 12th grade children who were alive then in Gaza. But those centers were battered by constant evacuations, teachers’ deaths, lack of supplies and IDF air strikes.
Anera workers and volunteers use U.S. Office of Asset Controls software to ensure no one is connected to Hamas or any violent group. Yet getting Anera trucks over the border is still a struggle.
"We're having trouble getting crayons and paper," Mleahat said by phone from the West Bank. "We have 10,000 Room to Read (a U.S-based global literacy nonprofit) books in storage in Jordan for nine months because we aren't allowed to bring them to Gaza. We may just hand them out in the West Bank."
Still, Sulieman is excited about an aid project backed by Americans. He hopes the situation will be less precarious as the peace process progresses.
Noble, who lives in Charleston, is counting on Beasley’s contacts across the Middle East to ease the flow of aid.
"Our mantra is, we are unadulterated, pure good, connecting kids so that they can learn about each other," Noble said. "And if you are such a mean son of a bitch that you don't think that's a good thing, then we'll go find somebody else who doesn't feel that way. David is our chairman. And whenever it gets really tough, we call him and he figures it out."
Anera CEO Sean Carroll has a great deal of hope because he "has the credibility, the connections and earned the trust" of the many agencies safeguarding Israel's borders. Carroll was in Gaza in December to survey the devastation and plans to return next month. He's keenly aware of the urgent need to rebuild homes, farms, electric power plants, hospitals, schools, roads, water, sewer and drainage pipes. There are more children with amputations than any other war zone and a shortage of wheelchairs and prosthetics.
When torrential rains and high winds hit Gaza this month, tents housing hundreds of displaced Palestinians collapsed and refugee camps were flooded.
"Since the ceasefire, Anera has thousands of new donors including Jewish supporters, Americans, Europeans, East Asia," Carroll said,"Wherever people are politically, they need to realize that innocent human beings need support. All the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, teach love thy neighbor."
UAE financial backing
Beasley likes to share an anecdote about strolling down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House to meet the 2016 Trump transition team when his phone rang. It was "this old, liberal, atheist, left wing friend of mine" imploring Beasley to accept Trump's job offer to head the World Food Program. His buddy thought Beasley's blend of street smarts, tough talk and compassion could convince Trump to keep international aid intact.
Even if aid is allowed to flow freely into Gaza, the terrain will be an obstacle even for temporary tents. After the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, the IDF ripped out Gaza's asphalt streets, highways and water pipes. This month, drenching rains turned Gaza dirt roads into mud flooded with sewage, flattening families' tents, toppling frail buildings. Across social media, Palestinian teachers posted video of students studying in the rain.
The Edward Said Music Conservatory (named after the Palestinian American Columbia University scholar) is one of the most famous examples. It shared a building with a Gaza ambulance crew and was destroyed in a bombing. But 1st through 12th graders somehow managed to carry their violins, flutes, oboes,guitars,ouds and clarinets through multiple evacuations from one refugee camp to another across hundreds of miles.
Violin student Mohammed Abu Aida, 14, became world famous after losing his right arm below the elbow in an IDF airstrike hit his home. His teacher created a metal holder to keep the violin in place as Aida played with one hand.
Noble is counting on that determination to fill the tents. He believes the UAE philanthropists financing the Gaza project can smooth the way thanks to the relationship of trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes between the two countries. Netanyahu praised the UAE as an Israeli ally who condemned terrorism when the nations signed the 2020 Abraham Accords ,opening diplomatic relations and agreed to share intelligence on terrorism .
Noble met the UAE benefactors after a trading company flew him to Dubai's 2020 world's fair.
"The fair was 1,000 acres ,190 countries ,25 million attendees ,"Noble recalled."(Scholars) had smallest space but biggest idea at expo ."