The US Occupation of Gaza Is Formally Starting

This week, Drop Website Information revealed a draft decision from Trump’s newly christened “Board of Peace.” The decision outlines what’s, in essence, Section Two of Trump’s unrealistic peace plan that ushered in a brand new section of horror in Gaza underneath the guise of a ceasefire.

The actions outlined within the decision ignore realities on the bottom and paint a really grim image of what the US is planning for Gaza. Removed from abandoning the ludicrous and offensive imagery Trump shared in that AI video from final 12 months of himself and Elon Musk on a seashore in an unrecognizable Gaza, this decision is the battle plan to show Gaza into the playground for the rich that Jared Kushner offered to the World Financial Discussion board at Davos final week. It’s a Gaza the place the one Palestinians remaining are these chosen to be the servants within the new regime.

It’s a Gaza underneath everlasting American occupation.

The “Government Board” That Would Management Gaza

The Board of Peace (BoP) itself has drawn essentially the most consideration, however it isn’t the point of interest for Gaza. The BoP is being arrange as a world drive to problem the United Nations. It’s at present populated totally by far-right and autocratic figures, and can possible keep that approach.

The BoP shall be headed by Donald Trump and his function as Board Chair is private, disconnected from his function as President of the US. He has full energy over the Board’s composition and full veto energy over all of its actions. Trump will stay in charge of the BoP till he decides to go away or he dies, and he has the only real authority to call his successor. You couldn’t construct a clearer autocracy.

The BoP can delegate its authority because it needs, and that’s what it has achieved relating to Gaza. The “Government Board” (EB) is the physique that can govern Gaza. The EB itself will even produce other areas inside its portfolio, so it, too, has delegated its energy to one more group, dubbed the Gaza Government Board (GEB). There may be appreciable overlap between the members of the EB and GEB.

The members of the GEB embrace some very acquainted names like Steve Witkoff, Trump’s lead negotiator; Susan Wiles, his Chief of Employees; Jared Kushner, his son-in-law; and Tony Blair the previous PM of the UK and a conflict prison within the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The remainder of the names could also be much less acquainted, however they’re all necessary and, collectively, they draw a really worrisome image of how this Board will behave.

Minister Hakan Fidan Ali Al-Thawadi is the Minister for Strategic Affairs of Qatar. He’s been a key determine within the negotiations between the U.S. and Hamas for the previous 12 months. Israel objected to his inclusion, however not too loudly. Al-Thawadi has cultivated a powerful relationship with Trump.

Basic Hassan Rashad is the pinnacle of Egyptian intelligence.

Marc Rowan is an American billionaire and a significant donor to Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign. He’s the chair of the United Jewish Attraction-Federation of New York, and a significant determine within the American Jewish pro-Israel group. Rowan was a frontrunner within the effort to silence tutorial and scholar activist criticism of Israel’s genocideandled the cost for the removing of College of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill in 2024.

Minister Reem Al-Hashimy is the Minister of State for Worldwide Cooperation within the United Arab Emirates. She was a number one spokesperson in assist of the Abraham Accords.

Nickolay Mladenov is a long-time Bulgarian diplomat who has served as each a member of the European Parliament and a high United Nations official. He labored intently with Blair within the Quartet — a world physique ostensibly charged with selling a two-state answer in Israel and Palestine, however which failed completely — and supported the Abraham Accords after they had been agreed upon. Mladenov was sufficient of a diplomat that he was in a position to garner public reward from Israel, the U.S., the Palestinian Authority, in addition to Hamas leaders. He has additionally been named by Trump because the “Excessive Consultant for Gaza,” so he could have a central function past simply GEB membership in implementing the Trump plan. Mladenov expressed skepticism about Trump’s first-term “deal of the century,” so will probably be price trying into how Mladenov received Trump over.

Yakir Gabay is an Israeli who can be a citizen of Cyprus. A billionaire actual property tycoon, Gabay made some headlines together with his involvement in urgent then-New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams to deploy police to violently crush the anti-genocide protests at Columbia College.

Sigrid Kaag is a long-time UN diplomat and former International Minister of the Netherlands. She was most lately UN Particular Coordinator for the Center East Peace Course of, though she resigned from that function final June. Kaag has not commented on her supposed appointment to the GEB, and it’s questionable whether or not she has or will truly settle for this function.

Not solely are there no Palestinians on the Gaza Government Board, however there may be additionally nobody with any historical past of advocating for Palestinian considerations and pursuits. The EB, to which the GEB will function “advisors,” contains a lot of the GEB: Witkoff, Wiles, Kushner, Blair, and Rowan are additionally on the EB, together with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy NSA Robert Gabriel.

Trump additionally appointed the pinnacle of the World Financial institution, Ajay Banga, and lawyer Martin Edelman, who has very shut ties to each Trump and the UAE, to the EB. Aryeh Lightstone, a former adviser to Trump’s first-term Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and Josh Gruenbaum, a bureaucrat who has labored intently with Witkoff and Kushner, had been appointed as advisers to the EB.

Palestinians Not Included in Planning Gaza’s Future

Whereas there aren’t any Israelis on the Government Board, it’s stacked with excessive supporters of the Israeli proper and of Netanyahu. This makes the imprecise mandate of your complete enterprise way more regarding.

The proposal printed by Drop Website states that “the reconstruction and rehabilitation actions of the Board shall be devoted solely to those that regard Gaza as their residence and place of residence.”

However the proposal gives no alternative for the folks of Gaza to have any say in any respect of their current state of affairs, not to mention their future. The EB governs the entire legal guidelines. An American-led Worldwide Stabilization Pressure (ISF) controls all safety.

The ISF is to be underneath the command of American Main Basic Jasper Jeffers. Trump, and Trump alone, has the facility to take away the commander of the ISF and should personally approve any nominee to exchange him.

The plan additional states that “solely these individuals who assist and act persistently [with Trump’s Comprehensive Plan for Gaza] shall be eligible to take part in governance, reconstruction, financial improvement, or humanitarian help actions in Gaza.”

In different phrases, Palestinians who want to be a part of Gaza in any approach should meet Trump’s litmus check of assist for the exterior American management of the Gaza Strip. The identical shall be true for any enterprise, NGO, and even particular person who desires to take part in any approach in rebuilding Gaza, bodily, politically, or economically.

Ideally, for Trump and Jared Kushner, Gaza could be remodeled into an enormous “firm city.” Many of the shoreline could be devoted to tourism. The majority of Gaza’s jap border with Israel could be devoted to industrial zones and large information facilities, likely reflecting the large investments Trump and his Emirati buddies are making in AI.

In between could be residential areas separated by parks, agricultural, and sporting websites. Within the West Financial institution, such parks and agricultural areas are often declared closed navy zones and used for different functions by the occupying drive.

As has been obvious from the start, the one function at present envisioned for Palestinians is within the administration of the Government Board’s choices. In different phrases, Palestinian technocrats, laborers, and workplace staff could be “permitted” to hold out the selections made for them by others.

The U.S. Occupation of Gaza

This decision supplies solely a bit extra substance to the half-baked concepts Trump has been placing ahead since October. And it continues to ascertain a near-future the place Hamas has voluntarily disarmed, Israel has pulled out of Gaza, and the ISF has assumed safety management that’s welcomed by no matter Palestinians stay in Gaza.

All of that continues to be absolutely within the realm of fantasy.

Hamas has repeatedly made it clear that it’s prepared to debate decommissioning its weapons, however wouldn’t disarm. On condition that Israel is, as soon as once more, funding rogue Palestinian gangs in Gaza, full disarmament is suicide for a lot of members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and different factions.

The US is discussing providing amnesty and even a buy-back program for the weapons, however these gives are hardly helpful if the lives of Hamas members are put at grave threat by disarmament, even when we assume that the U.S. retains to its phrase and that Israel doesn’t itself hunt these fighters down.

Furthermore, Israel is bristling at this complete plan. They like to convey the hammer down once more on Gaza, particularly now that there aren’t any hostages, useless or alive, to be involved with.

Netanyahu is overtly stating that Israel will permit no rebuilding in Gaza — the place it’s killing folks, together with infants, not solely with its weapons however by denying Palestinians the supplies to shelter from the winter components — till Hamas is “disarmed.”

He’s additionally declaring that Israel will keep “safety management” over Gaza in perpetuity. Israel has knowledgeable the U.S. that it desires to increase the zone of Israeli management in Gaza — which already encompasses nicely over half the Strip — slightly than shrink it, as referred to as for by Trump’s plan.

Israel has already reportedly drawn up a plan for a significant navy operation, a return to the full-blown genocide of final 12 months, which it plans to launch in March except the U.S. refuses to permit it to take action.

And, lastly, an excessive amount of ambiguity stays in regards to the potential make-up of the ISF. Whereas quite a few states have pledged to assist the disarmament of Gaza, many have additionally expressed reluctance to be a part of the drive if it means having to confront armed Palestinian resistance teams.

There’s a good cause for his or her reluctance. What’s taking form in Gaza is a brand new form of international occupation. This time, the U.S. could be the main drive on the bottom except it permits Israel to resume its aggression, one thing Trump doesn’t need. It will mark the best failure of his lengthy checklist of failures, undermining his declare to have “ended wars all around the world.”

However international troops are international troops. It’s attainable that the Trump administration has purchased into its and Israel’s personal nonsense so totally that they actually consider that so long as the boot on Palestinians’ necks just isn’t Jewish, the Palestinians will be managed and won’t battle for his or her freedom. As a result of, of their telling, your complete Palestinian wrestle is simply about combating “the Jews.”

However an American-led occupation will face resistance simply because the Israeli one does. That can manifest even when Hamas is disarmed.

An American occupation of Gaza on Israel’s behalf shall be simply as unwelcome by Palestinians as an Israeli one backed by the US. It could take a while for the folks of Gaza to regroup from the previous two and a half years to prepare impactful resistance, however it should come, because it at all times has.

The answer is straightforward: permit Palestinians their freedom and their rights. However that answer is past the creativeness of Washington and Tel Aviv. So, meet the brand new occupation. It will likely be no extra nice than the outdated one.