The Trump administration’s Middle East “peace plan” completely ignores the Palestinians and their perspectives. All Trump’s plan does is legitimize seven decades of occupation. Occupation which is illegal under international law and in violation of countless UN resolutions.
No wonder the Palestinian leadership has said “One Thousand No’s” to the proposal, and the UN has rejected it out of hand, quite simply because any peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians has to be based on UN resolutions and international law, and must see a viable Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders.
A plan which strips the Palestinians of their land and political rights is not a plan, and it is concerning that the French government says the plan is worth “studying attentively.” Egypt, which has close relations with the US and Israel, has not stood up against the plan but urged “a careful and thorough examination of the US vision.” The UK government has praised Trump’s plan as “a serious proposal reflecting extensive time and effort.” The UAE and Saudi Arabia also deem it a “serious initiative,” and have not said a word about the rights of Palestinians and exposed the plan for what it really is - a land grab.
Some countries like the UAE are pretending that the plan is “a good starting point,” but in fact there is no intention on the part of the US or Israeli governments to negotiate what is in the plan, but are in the process of making its provisions “a fait accompli.” The Trump administration has said it will soon release a map that reflects the tenets of the plan “so that recognition can be immediately achieved.” That is why there was no Palestinian input from the beginning as it was never a document meant to lead to real final status negotiations, but rather a crude imposition of Israel’s will on the Palestinians, backed up by the iron fist of the United States.
To prove that point, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wasting no time caring about the reaction to the plan, but is going to unilaterally fast track its implementation, starting today. On the heels of Trump’s press conference unveiling the “plan” this week, Netanyahu said that his government would move on February 2nd to annex 31 Jewish settlements, the Jordan Valley, and the Northern Dead Sea. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has said in the wake of the plan’s unveiling that Israeli does not have to wait at all to move ahead with annexation.
Palestinian leaders are not even surprised by what the Israeli government is planning to do. Palestinian negotiator Saeeb Erekat says that Trump’s plan is copy and pasted from Netanyahu and the Settler Council’s plans, and he has heard it all before. Now the agenda of the settlers is being put into motion, fulfilling the wish list of right wing Israelis, and the Palestinians seem virtually powerless to stop it, other than to unleash their resistance on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza. Even the Israeli rights group B’Tselem has reacted to the plan saying Israel has “offered a permanent state of apartheid.”
At least there are still countries willing to stand up for the rights of the Palestinians and say, like Germany did this week, that there needs to be a negotiated two state solution acceptable to both sides. South Africa reiterated that “only initiatives developed with the full participation of the people of Palestine can achieve lasting peace,” and that “a viable Palestinian state must be based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and in line with all UN resolutions and international law.” Qatar, Turkey and Iran have echoed those sentiments. Jordan reaffirmed the necessity for Israel to withdraw from the territory it has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967, and warned against the “annexation of Palestinian lands.”
The details of the plan in essence ensure that there will be no real Palestinian state, that approximately a third of West Bank land will be annexed by Israel, and six million Palestinian refugees living abroad will have no right of return. According to the plan, the “refugee problem” must be solved by Arab countries who according to the drafters of the document, “have the moral responsibility to integrate them into their own countries.” There will also be limitations on allowing refugees into Palestinian areas.
How can anyone call an entity a state (as is understood in international relations) when the plans stipulates Palestine will have no control over its borders or air space, it will have no military or military capabilities such as mines, heavy machine guns, or military intelligence, and will not have foreign relations with other countries. Foreign relations would be the responsibility of Israel. Does Trump not realise that this is the definition of a colony? But worse still what is being proposed is the equivalent of a series of powerless bantustans. Palestinian areas would not be contiguous but rather scattered enclaves connected by tunnels and roads.
Just as Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights in 2017, under the plan Israel will annex the Jordan Valley, which has long been considered the bread basket of the Palestinian state. All water resources in Palestinian areas would also be under Israel’s control. In what is probably one of the biggest land grabs in modern history, Israel will also annex all the existing Israeli settlements into contiguous Israeli territory, which will be connected through a transport system. The US has said it will recognise the settlements housing 600,000 settlers in the Palestinian occupied territories as part of Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation has said Trump's plan would give Palestinians control over only 15% of historic Palestine. In compensation for the loss of West Bank territory, the plan says that Palestinians could get a chunk of desert linked to Gaza near the Egyptian border. This is the Israeli idea of land swaps - fertile Palestinian lands and water resources for swathes of desert.
As for one of the most sensitive issues that was supposed to be negotiated as part of the Final Status talks - the capital of the state of Palestine - the plan stipulates that a neighbourhood outside of the actual city of Jerusalem could be the capital of a Palestinian state (in East Jerusalem only in the area east and north of the wall). The Palestinians would not have sovereignty over any part of the old city, including the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is one of the most contested issues of the whole conflict.
The US and Israel are attempting to protect themselves from prosecution in international tribunals, which is why the plan also stipulates that the Palestinian state and the PLO must dismiss any action they have taken against Israel and the US before the ICC, ICJ, and Interpol, and must undertake not to take any further action. This would in effect give the architects of apartheid and repression in the Holy Land immunity from prosecution, and would prevent those responsible from having arrest warrants issued against them, thereby impeding their travel to various foreign countries.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on all countries of the world to reject and boycott what he calls “the hoax of the century.” It will be very telling which countries are independent enough to step up to the plate.
*Shannon Ebrahim is the Group Foreign Editor