Trump's Gaza plan: a blueprint for entrenching colonial control
Palestinians are talked about but not talked to. Their political representatives are excluded, and their rights indefinitely deferred. This is not a peace plan.
Opinion — March 2, 2026
Palestinians are discussed but not consulted. Their political representatives are sidelined, and their rights are deferred indefinitely. What the White House calls a peace plan is in reality a document that entrenches dispossession and seeks to legalize apartheid.
The latest US proposal for Gaza—involving a 45-day ceasefire, the displacement of Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt, and the reconstruction of Gaza under an international administration that excludes Hamas—was crafted without any direct Palestinian input. That is not a peace process. It is a pronouncement.
History tells us what happens when the affected population is absent from negotiations about their own future. The Oslo Accords were heralded as a breakthrough; they became an instrument for expanding settlements. The Abraham Accords were celebrated as normalization; they were normalization of occupation.
The current proposal goes further. It implicitly accepts the permanent non-return of Palestinians displaced since October 2023, rendering dispossession a foundation stone rather than a problem to be solved.
What is called 'reconstruction' is, on closer inspection, the creation of a new dependency—a Gaza administered by Gulf states and international technocrats, answerable not to Palestinians but to donors and regional powers with their own agendas.
Real peace requires the recognition of Palestinian political rights, not merely humanitarian relief. It requires accountability, not impunity. And it requires that Palestinians—all Palestinians—be present at the table where their fate is decided.
