Log in
Donald Trump wants to sell the world a “peace plan” for Gaza. Twenty points that would end a thousand-year-old conflict, he says. In reality, only the first two are on the table: a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange. Admittedly, for the people of Gaza, exhausted by months of bombing, these measures represent a vital respite. The bombs have stopped, children can sleep, and hospitals can breathe a little easier despite the lack of medical oxygen. The nightmare of total ethnic cleansing seems to have been temporarily averted.
But this relief should not be misleading. Behind this truce lies a colonialist plan disguised as peace by the richest countries, with the support of Arab elites. Gaza and the West Bank remain under siege, the borders remain under Israeli control, and the reconstruction of Gaza is under foreign supervision. The Palestinian people have no control over their territory or their future. This plan confirms the military occupation of Palestine.
Trump, faithful to colonial logic, speaks of a “new security order.” This means that Israel retains control of the skies, borders, crossing points, and even humanitarian aid flows, as we saw this week. There is talk of “demilitarization” of Gaza, but it is a militarization of surveillance: drones, an occupying army, and docile international forces.
The heart of the problem remains unchanged
The heart of the problem remains unchanged: the colonization that accompanies the occupation. As long as the West Bank is fragmented by Israeli settlements, as long as East Jerusalem remains annexed, as long as refugees are denied the right of return, peace will be an illusion. We cannot talk about coexistence as long as one people is locked up, starved and displaced in the name of the security of the other.
The end of the bombings is not enough: the occupation must end. The Palestinian people have the right to free borders, to land without settlements, to a sovereign and viable state. Everything else is just crisis management.
Riddled with predatory vultures of capital, Trump’s plan does not address the issue of the sovereignty of the Palestinian people. It turns it into a technical issue managed by Washington and Tel Aviv: there is talk of reconstruction, investment in real estate, “normalization”... but not of Palestinian national recognition.
Speaking out again
The voice of the Palestinian people remains clear: for them, living in peace means an end to the blockade and drones, freedom of movement, freedom to study, to build, to dream in their homeland. Sooner or later, they will rise up. And in this struggle, they will not be alone.
International solidarity must remain strong, active, and clear-headed. It cannot be content with welcoming a temporary ceasefire. It must continue to denounce the system of apartheid and colonization that is suffocating Palestine. The Palestinian people need the fighting to stop, but not a plan that makes the occupation worse; they need to recover what has been stolen from them: their land, their sovereignty, their right to live in peace.
