I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
In a supplementary comment in Freedom, Maggie Meehan, an American political activist, asked:
Nasir Khan, which probably means that public support for Palestinian self-determination and respect for this Hamas response will have to increase?
My reply:
Dear Maggie Meehan, the world has seen, often silently, the mass killings of Palestinians and systematic destruction of Gaza by Israeli air force and ground forces for so long. Now some rulers have given formal recognition to the State of Palestine because it is run and administered by a collaborator, Mahmoud Abbas! But those who follow the events and the role of the phoney leaders like Abbas know that such trivial gestures are only to pacify some people, but large sections of populations of many western countries stand for the liberation of Palestine and the end of the colonial occupation.
To our surprise, the US, the citadel of Zionist support and the supplier of lethal and destructive weapons, military intelligence, and unconditional diplomatic support, has become more isolated in the United Nations. Despite all the efforts to suppress and terrorise protesters, many Americans have challenged the ruling establishment's criminal policy towards the besieged people of Gaza and the barbaric mass slaughter by Israel of the Palestinians. That is a proof of great courage and defiance supporting the just cause of Palestine has become more visible and a factor for the manipulative political leaders to consider. The same trend is evident in the pro-Zionist countries of Europe, where protesters against the mass killings of Palestinians are being victimised and arrested by authorities for standing for Palestine.
National security minister films himself denouncing captured Global Sumud Flotilla as 'terrorists' in detention centre
Israeli
policemen surround Israeli Minister of National Security and far-right
politician Itamar Ben-Gvir as he arrives outside the Damascus Gate of
the walled Old City of Jerusalem on May 26, 2025 (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
Israel's
national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir has filmed himself visiting
the captured members of the Gaza flotilla and deriding them as
"terrorists".
Footage released on X showed Ben Gvir in the detention centre where
the members of the Global Sumud Flotilla were being held following their
capture in international waters off the coast of Gaza on Wednesday.
"There are the flotilla terrorists, they are terrorists," the settler
leader can be heard saying as he gestures at the activists.
"Look at them, supporters of murderers. By the way, in their ships it
was a total mess. They didn't really come, not for the flotilla, not to
help."
Some of the flotilla's activists can be heard chanting "Free Palestine" as they sit together on the ground.
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Ben Gvir
later tours the ship they were on with a police commissioner and claims
there was little or no aid other than some baby formula and suggests the
boat's crew were instead having a "party" on board.
Israeli officials confirmed on Thursday that they had abducted 400
pro-Palestinian activists who were on board 41 ships in the flotilla,
which was carrying aid to Gaza.
On 30 September 2025, I was on The Spectator’s podcast with Freddy Gray talking about President Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza genocide. It is a deeply flawed plan, which Benjamin Netanyahu played a key role in crafting and which was presented to Hamas as a fait accompli. As I discuss in the podcast, Hamas would be foolish in the extreme to accept this one-sided plan, which makes them more vulnerable than ever to Israeli aggression, and does hardly anything to facilitate Palestinian self-determination.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been taken by Israeli
forces after the interception of vessels from the Gaza aid flotilla. Israel’s
Foreign Ministry said on X that “several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud
flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being
transferred to an Israeli port,” adding: “Greta and her friends are safe
and healthy.” The ministry also shared a video showing Thunberg
being escorted away. Israel has provided no substantive evidence to
support the claim the flotilla is linked to Hamas. Activists have called the interception illegal and “piracy”.
We
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US
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
after a press conference at the White House in Washington, DC on
September 29, 2025. Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images.
Three
weeks after Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas’s lead negotiators in
a series of airstrikes on the group’s offices in Doha, Qatar, President
Donald Trump hailed the public announcement of his 20-point plan to end
the war in Gaza as “potentially one of the great days ever in
civilization.” The framework was drafted in coordination with Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top adviser, Ron Dermer, and spearheaded
by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Several Arab and Muslim states also contributed. No Palestinian
officials from Hamas or any other faction, including the
internationally-recognized Palestinian Authority, were consulted in
crafting the plan.
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The
proposal, which Netanyahu agreed to after meeting with Trump at the
White House on Monday, links the delivery of food and other life
essentials and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the demilitarization
of Gaza and includes several loopholes that would permit Israel to
resume the genocide. It also would impose a foreign-led authority on the
demilitarized Gaza Strip, backed by Arab and international troops, and
allow the Israeli army to indefinitely encircle the enclave by
maintaining positions inside Gaza’s territory. The plan requires Hamas
to release all Israeli captives held in Gaza before any Palestinians
would be freed. While the proposal includes a series of apparent
concessions to Arab and Muslim countries in return for their
endorsement, it makes no mention of how Israel would be prevented from
violating the agreement. The plan also includes a nebulous mention of
possible future Palestinian “self-determination and statehood” after
Gaza “re-development advances” and the Palestinian Authority is
reformed.
“If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will
immediately end,” the framework’s text, released on Monday, states.
“Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a
hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including
aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines
will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged
withdrawal.”
In his White House remarks, Netanyahu affirmed his
acceptance of the framework, but made clear Israel stands poised to
resume the genocide. “If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if
they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter
it—then Israel will finish the job by itself,” he declared. “This can be
done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done.
We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done.”
Trump also
underscored this point. “Israel would have my full backing to finish the
job of destroying the threat of Hamas,” he said. “But I hope that we’re
going to have a deal for peace, and if Hamas rejects the deal… Bibi
you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do. Everyone
understands that the ultimate result must be the elimination of any
danger posed in the region. And the danger is caused by Hamas.”
On
Tuesday, Trump reiterated this and said he would give Hamas “about
three or four days” to respond. “We’re just waiting for Hamas, and Hamas
is either going to be doing it or not, and if it’s not, it’s going to
be a very sad end,” he said, adding that if Hamas rejects the deal, “I
would let [Israel] go and do what they have to do.”
Hamas was not
given any details on the proposal prior to Trump and Netanyahu unveiling
it at the White House, a senior leader told Al Jazeera Mubasher. “Not a
single Palestinian has reviewed this plan, and what was recounted …
represents a tilt toward the Israeli vision—an approach close to what
Netanyahu insisted on and pleaded for—to continue the war and the
annihilation. Nothing more, nothing less,” said senior Hamas leader
Mahmoud Mardawi immediately following the Trump–Netanyahu press
conference. “To negotiate an end to this criminal war in exchange for
ending the Palestinian people’s right to their state and their rights to
their land, homeland, and holy sites—no Palestinian will accept that.”
Mardawi
said that Hamas and other Palestinian factions would need to study the
proposal, adding that, “the official position must be issued after
reading the proposal and then stating our position and making amendments
that conform with our right to self-determination.” The last time Hamas
leaders gathered to discuss a U.S. proposal, on September 9, Israel
attempted to assassinate its negotiators.
Qatar’s foreign ministry
spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said Tuesday that Egypt and Qatar had
delivered the plan to Hamas and, along with Turkish officials, would be
holding a “consultative meeting.” Al-Ansari added, “We are optimistic
that Trump’s plan is comprehensive, and the Hamas delegation is studying
it responsibly, and we continue to consult with them.”
While
Trump praised his own plan as a landmark opportunity for “eternal peace
in the Middle East,” the exclusion of all Palestinians from the process
is an extension of decades of Western colonial dominance of
decision-making surrounding the future of Palestine. At the heart of
Trump’s plan is a thinly-veiled ultimatum to Palestinians: bend the knee
to Israel, renounce the right of armed resistance, and agree to
indefinite subjugation by foreign actors.
“This plan is a
malicious attempt to achieve through politics what the war of
extermination could not achieve on the ground,” said Sami Al-Arian, a
prominent Palestinian academic and activist and the director of the
Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University. “This
includes ending the resistance, withdrawing weapons, releasing [Israeli]
captives without a complete withdrawal, maintaining security,
political, and economic control over Gaza, and imposing international
tutelage.” He said the Trump framework is aimed at “perpetuating the
Israeli narrative that the challenge is a security one related to
Israeli security needs, not to ending a military occupation, Israeli
genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and ongoing aggression.”
Al-Arian
told Drop Site, “There is no negotiation here. There is an American
plan. It was modified by some Israeli points and possibly some Arab
points. And it’s given to the resistance as a ‘Take it or leave it’
thing.”
In the lead-up to the announcement, the Trump
administration pushed a familiar narrative to friendly media outlets
that he pressured a resistant Netanyahu into the agreement. In reality,
Israeli officials were deeply involved with crafting the proposal right
up to the moment the White House released the text.
In a video
address in Hebrew following his event with Trump, Netanyahu portrayed
the plan as a coup for Israel’s agenda, saying it effectively placed an
Arab and international stamp of legitimacy on his genocidal plans. “This
is a historic visit. Instead of Hamas isolating us, we turned the
tables and isolated Hamas. Now the entire world, including the Arab and
Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the terms we set together
with President Trump: to release all our hostages, both living and
deceased, while the IDF remains in most of the Strip,” Netanyahu
declared. “Who would have believed this? After all, people constantly
say, the IDF should withdraw… No way, that’s not happening.”
In
previous “ceasefire” negotiations, when Hamas has sought to propose
amendments or even to clarify phrasing in draft texts, Israel and the
U.S. denounced Hamas, falsely accusing it of rejecting peace, and then
Israel intensified the military assault on Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has
offered the public perception it agrees to draft deals, while at the
same time securing “side letters”
from Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, authorizing Israel to resume
the war if it determines the agreement is no longer in its interests.
“There
is no negotiation here. There is an American plan. It was modified by
some Israeli points and possibly some Arab points. And it’s given to the
resistance as a ‘Take it or leave it’ thing.”
And after it
signed the January 2025 ceasefire agreement, Israel repeatedly violated
it, regularly striking Gaza and ultimately blowing up the agreement
entirely after the first of what was supposed to be a three-phase deal.
Netanyahu has made clear that he wants not only Hamas’s surrender, but
the decimation of all Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
“What was
announced at the press conference between Trump and Netanyahu is an
American-Israeli agreement, an expression of Israel’s entire position,
and a recipe for continued aggression against the Palestinian people,”
said Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the secretary general of Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, the second largest armed resistance group in Gaza, in a
statement. “Israel is trying to impose, through the United States, what
it has been unable to achieve through war. Therefore, we consider the
American-Israeli announcement a recipe for igniting the region.”
In
crafting this plan, Trump deployed his son-in-law, Kushner, to shore up
support from Arab nations ahead of the announcement. Kushner is often
touted by Trump as the mastermind of the so-called Abraham Accord
“normalization” agreements with Israel. Kushner has extensive business
dealings in Gulf countries and his investment firm, Affinity Partners,
is backed by billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, and Qatar.
Trump boasted that he has the full backing of
all major Arab nations. “The level of support that I’ve had from the
nations in the Middle East and surrounding Israel and neighbors of
Israel has been incredible. Incredible. Every single one of them,” Trump
said, highlighting the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
“These are the people that we’ve been dealing with and who’ve been
actually very much involved in this negotiation, giving us ideas, things
they can live with, things they can’t live with.”
Embedded within
the plan are several terms that Arab nations pushed for and which
certainly were key to getting their buy-in. “The conditions may finally
be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and
statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian
people,” the plan states. Arab and Muslim countries also certainly
advocated for including a provision that Israel will cease its military
assault and “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.” No Palestinians, the
outline states, “will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to
leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people
to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.”
An
earlier leaked draft of Trump’s plan, as reported in Hebrew media,
included a commitment that Israel would not annex the West Bank. That
term does not exist in the text distributed Monday by the White House.
Nonetheless,
the foreign ministers of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia,
Pakistan, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt issued a statement
saying they “welcome President Donald J Trump’s leadership and his
sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza, and assert their confidence in
his ability to find a path to peace.”
During his appearance on Al
Jazeera after the plan was announced, Mardawi repeatedly emphasized the
exclusion of Palestinians from the drafting of the Trump plan. “How can
an Arab state refuse to allow the Palestinian people, with all their
current political forces and over past decades, to participate?” he
asked, rejecting the premise. “In everything put forward there is no
affirmation of the Palestinian people’s rights.” He added that Hamas
“will examine the proposal, discuss it with the factions, amend it, and
consult the countries—all the countries that were willing and ready
among those that met with Trump—and review their positions.”
Abu
Ali Hassan, a member of the General Central Committee of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced the plan as giving
diplomatic cover to a continuation of Israel’s broader agenda. “Trump
gave the occupying state sufficient time to achieve its goals to no
avail. The plan is a political intervention to achieve the military
objectives of the war,” he told the Palestinian Sanad news agency. The
plan, he said, “is an expression of a conspiracy involving international
and Arab parties to undermine the rights of the Palestinian people and
defeat their resistance.”
Trump meets with Netanyahu at White House. Photo by Avi Ohayon (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images.
Privatizing and Colonizing Gaza
The
Trump plan is riddled with ambiguities, loopholes, and proposals that
leave a multitude of paths for Israel to resume its genocidal assault on
Gaza.
Within 72 hours of an agreement, the plan says, Hamas must
release all Israeli captives held in Gaza. There are believed to be 20
living Israelis and the bodies of 28 deceased remaining in the Strip. In
return, Israel would subsequently release 250 Palestinians sentenced to
life and 1,700 Palestinians from Gaza taken captive after October 7,
2023, including all women and children. The bodies of 15 Palestinians,
according to the plan, would be returned for the remains of each
deceased Israeli held in Gaza.
The plan states that deliveries of
food and other life essentials to Gaza will resume in quantities
consistent with the January 2025 ceasefire agreement that Israel
unilaterally abandoned. “Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip
will proceed without interference from the two parties through the
United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to
other international institutions not associated in any manner with
either party,” it says, adding that this will include “rehabilitation of
infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of
hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove
rubble and open roads.” The plan also pledges that the Rafah crossing
along the border with Egypt—what was once Gaza’s only gateway to the
world beyond Israeli control—would be opened in both directions under
the rules established in the January ceasefire deal. But a map of the
proposed Israeli withdrawals would allow Israeli forces to remain
deployed across southern Gaza, including along the Philadelphi corridor
that runs along the border with Egypt, until an international force met
standards approved by Trump.
The White House released a map Monday showing proposed Israeli troop withdrawals as part of Trump’s Gaza plan.
The maps for a proposed phased Israeli withdrawal are consistent with those proposed by Israel
in July—and rejected by Hamas—with the added term that any Israeli
troop withdrawals will be linked to the verified disarmament of
Palestinian resistance groups. The plan says that Israeli forces would
“progressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies” to an
international security force, but that Israeli troops would maintain “a
security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly
secure from any resurgent terror threat.”
“The resumption
of the aid is extremely important in light of the fact that there is
starvation and famine taking place,” said Al-Arian. “But I think the
thorniest of issues would be the disarmament and the [Israeli]
withdrawal. These could be the two issues that can make this whole deal
unravel.”
The Trump framework also states that if Hamas “delays or
rejects this proposal,” aid distribution will only proceed in areas
under Israeli control or those handed over to the international force
after disarmament of Palestinians in the area.
The plan also
contains terms that Hamas has explicitly defined as “red lines,” namely a
demand to strip Palestinians of their right to armed resistance against
Israeli occupation. “All military, terror, and offensive
infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will
be destroyed and not rebuilt,” it states. “There will be a process of
demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors,
which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an
agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally
funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the
independent monitors.”
Mardawi, the Hamas official, said the U.S.
and Israel were engaged in a propaganda campaign to rebrand the
Palestinian right to self defense as a justification for Israel’s
genocidal war. “To confiscate these weapons without a horizon, without a
roadmap, without steps that lead to the establishment of the
Palestinian state that the world recognizes is an attempt to bury the
international consensus—except for America and the rogue Israel—on
recognizing the Palestinian people’s right to establish their state,” he
told Al Jazeera. “This international diplomatic and political
momentum—especially from Europe, which used to support, back, and
provide all forms of assistance to the state of the occupation—this
recognition and this shift toward affirming the Palestinian people’s
right to establish their state on their homeland is being undermined.”
The
Trump plan says that the U.S. will work with Arab and international
partners to create “a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF)
to immediately deploy in Gaza” to establish “control and stability.” In
addition to providing security in Gaza, the plan says the ISF would also
“work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with
newly trained Palestinian police forces.” The concept outlined in the
plan is that as the ISF takes control of areas occupied by Israel,
Israeli forces would withdraw. But the entire plan is predicated on the
disarmament of Palestinian factions in areas the Israeli military would
agree to withdraw from. It states that Israeli withdrawal would be
“based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to
demilitarization… with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer
poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens.”
“I think there
will be huge reservations from all Palestinian factions, that they will
not surrender their weapons,” Al-Arian said. “People have the right to
defend themselves, particularly when dealing with an enemy that does not
respect any law, any international law, any humanitarian law
whatsoever.”
At the White House on Monday, Trump claimed he had
secured commitments from Arab and Muslim countries “to demilitarize
Gaza, and that’s quickly. Decommission the military capabilities of
Hamas and all other terror organizations. Do that immediately. We’re
relying on the countries that I named and others to deal with Hamas.”
Al-Arian
said he was skeptical Israel would actually agree to the deployment of a
foreign force, particularly an Arab one. But even if it did happen, he
said it would not be capable of achieving the stated aim of disarming
Palestinian resistance factions. “They’re not going to bring Arab and
international troops to go and fight the resistance. The resistance will
not voluntarily give up its arms,” said Al-Arian. “Which makes the
Israelis say, ‘If that doesn’t happen, we’re not withdrawing.’ So you
end up with a frozen conflict that could actually unravel and return
back to genocide. But this time the Americans will say, ‘We tried, we
failed.’ And then the Israelis have a free hand to resume their
genocide.”
Hamas has repeatedly said that it would relinquish
governing authority in Gaza to an independent technocratic committee of
Palestinians. On several occasions, Hamas proposed including the term in
previous ceasefire proposals and the U.S., and Israel removed it. The
Trump plan states, “Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role
in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form.” It
does not clarify which factions this would include.
While the
Trump plan states that “Gaza will be governed under the temporary
transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian
committee,” it requires that it be overseen by another newly created
entity that would be headed by Trump and reportedly managed by former
British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The document references the potential
future involvement of the Palestinian Authority, but offers no
timeline.
Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau,
denounced the involvement of Blair, an unrepentant war monger who has
spent his years since leaving office cashing in by peddling his
influence to dictators and despots. “I could call him ‘the devil’s
brother’—that’s Tony Blair. He has brought no good to the Palestinian
cause, to the Arabs, or to the Muslims. His criminal and destructive
role since the war on Iraq, in which he had a central role both
theoretically and in practical participation, is well known,” Badran
told Al Jazeera Mubasher on Sunday. “Tony Blair is not a welcome figure
in the Palestinian cause, and therefore any plan associated with this
person is an ill omen for the Palestinian people.” After resigning as
British Prime Minister, Blair served as the official Middle East envoy
for the Quartet—consisting of the U.S., the UN, the EU, and Russia—from
2007 to 2015 and was widely criticized for achieving little.
Al-Arian
said that while Hamas has agreed that it would not be a part of an
interim governing body for Gaza, Israel and Trump seem to be trying to
preemptively strip Palestinians of the right to choose their leaders
democratically. “Eventually there will have to be some sort of a
democratic transition, democratic elections in which Gazans have the
right to rule themselves,” he said. “I don’t think any Palestinian would
agree to have a foreign power governing them. That imperialist,
colonialist mentality is not acceptable to any Palestinian.”
The
Trump plan calls for the establishment of an “economic development plan”
that would be managed by a “panel of experts who have helped birth some
of the thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East.” The language
is consistent with the praise Trump heaped on the rulers of Gulf
nations when he visited Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in May. While
Trump made no mention of his oft-repeated threat to turn Gaza into a
U.S.-run “Middle East Riviera,” the plan indicates he sees massive
private investment opportunities in the rubble of Gaza.
During the
Monday press conference, Trump addressed Dermer—Netanyahu’s chief
strategist—in the front row with a rambling digression referring to Gaza
as the most beautiful real estate in the region and offered a
staggeringly false history of Israel “giving it” to the Palestinians in
2005. “They [Israel] said, ‘You take it. This is our contribution to
peace.’ But that didn’t work out. That didn’t work out. It was the
opposite of peace,” Trump said. “They pulled away, they let them have
it. And I never forgot that because I said, ‘That doesn’t sound like a
good deal to me as a real estate person.’ They gave up the ocean, right?
Ron, they gave up the ocean. They said, ‘Who would do this deal?’And it
still didn’t work out. They were very generous, actually. And they gave
up the most magnificent piece of land in many ways in the Middle East.
And they said, ‘All we want to do now is have peace.’ That request was
not honored.”
“Every move on Trump’s part, he gets someone in the
back door, whether it’s his children, his son in law, or friends, to
take a piece of the act,” said Al-Arian. “So he sees big dollar signs
coming in and that’s why he got in Tony Blair, because that is the
medium by which he’s going to be able to control the money and control
what’s happening in Gaza.”
While Trump and Netanyahu can forge
ahead with their attempt to impose this plan on Gaza, Hamas and
Palestinian Islamic Jihad still hold nearly 50 Israeli captives, living
and dead. Hamas knows this is the only leverage it holds in any
negotiation. “The only thing that Hamas can reject really is the hand
over the captives,” said Al-Arian. “Hamas doesn’t want to be stripped of
this card and then end up with another war in which they have zero
leverage after that.” Should Netanyahu and Trump attempt to entirely
circumvent Hamas and recover the captives through military force, it is
certain that many, if not all of them, would be killed. Hamas’s armed
wing, Qassam Brigades, has issued several warnings to Israel against
such plans.
The Trump plan states that, “Once all hostages are
returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to
decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who
wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving
countries.” This clause portrays Hamas as akin to a small group of
foreign fighters, rather than a political movement that has won
democratic elections, governed Gaza for two decades, and which still
enjoys a sizable amount of support in public polls across Palestine.
While
the Trump proposal contains some elements that the Palestinian
resistance has long demanded, including the resumption of life
essentials and humanitarian aid, the exchange of captives and a
framework, albeit deeply skewed toward Israel, for withdrawal of
occupation forces. But Al-Arian said these terms do not outweigh the
traps embedded within the plan’s text.
“We may get the first phase
of the plan. What happens to the rest of the plan is going to depend
pretty much on other dynamics, but more importantly on the Trump
administration, which is Zionist to the core. So I don’t have much hope
that this is going to be carried out,” Al-Arian said. “And what comes
after that is going to be a renewed effort to establish Greater Israel,
which will also precipitate greater effort to resist this. That means
that the whole region will stay unstable.”
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on July 13, 2025 on a tarmac in New Jersey. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
Killing Negotiations
Some
terms of the plan appear to be rooted in the terms of a 13-point
U.S.-Israeli-drafted plan that Hamas agreed to on August 18. Israel
never formally responded to Hamas’s acceptance of the so-called Witkoff
framework, which the U.S. publicly characterized as the deal that would
end the war. By that point, Israel was finalizing preparations for a
sustained ground invasion of Gaza City aimed at expelling one million
Palestinians. On August 20, two days after Hamas made major concessions and accepted the Witkoff plan, Israel forged ahead with its invasion of Gaza City.
As Israel intensified its air strikes and ground operations against Gaza, Trump bombastically announced
on September 3 that he was making a final offer to Hamas. Ignoring the
fact that Hamas had already conceded to what Trump had also called the
last chance for a deal, the U.S. delivered to Hamas via Qatari mediators
a 100-word document
that called for the unconditional release of all Israeli captives,
living and dead, in Gaza in return for a 60-day ceasefire and an opaque
commitment to end the war. As the U.S. initiated backdoor communications
with Hamas, claiming to want to make a deal, Israeli army Chief of
Staff Eyal Zamir publicly threatened to assassinate Hamas leaders
outside of Gaza if the group did not surrender.
As Hamas
officials convened in Doha on September 9 to discuss how to respond to
the paragraph-long document from Trump and messages it received through
intermediaries, Israel carried out what it called Operation Day of
Judgement, bombing Hamas’s offices and the Qatar residence of its chief
political leader and negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya. While the strike failed
to kill any Hamas leaders, Israel’s missiles took the lives of
Al-Hayya’s son and four Hamas administrative staff as well as a Qatari
security guard. The attack also wounded Al-Hayya’s wife,
daughter-in-law, and some of his grandchildren.
Qatar is the home
of U.S. Central Command, the premiere American strategic military
facility in the region. Israel was able to conduct its attacks without
encountering any apparent resistance from the U.S.-provided air defense
systems in Qatar, raising serious questions about the extent of U.S.
involvement in the strike. While the Trump administration claimed it was
only alerted by Israel soon before the Israeli air strikes and tried to
warn Qatar’s leader, the contention defies common sense. No country in
the world has a more extensive military and intelligence apparatus in
the region than that operated by the U.S.
Whether by Israeli
design or the product of a U.S.-Israeli plot, the series of events—most
prominently the U.S.-enabled sabotage of yet another ceasefire
agreement—paved the way for weeks of wanton killing, forced displacement
and mass destruction in northern Gaza.
Arab leaders gathered in
Doha for an emergency summit on September 15 to discuss Israel’s bombing
of Qatar. In the end, they issued only a strongly worded statement and
declined to engage in any military response to Israel’s attack. Trump
claimed he was not happy with the Israeli bombing of Qatar and claimed
it would not happen again. But two Arab diplomatic sources told Drop
Site that on his recent visit to Qatar, Secretary of State Marco Rubio
told officials in Doha that the U.S. could make no such guarantee as
long as Hamas was allowed to operate in Qatar. A State Department
spokesperson declined to confirm or deny what the sources told Drop
Site.
During his meeting with Trump on Monday, Netanyahu offered
an apology to the emir of Qatar on a phone call made from inside the
White House and promised not to violate Qatari sovereignty again. But
the apology was narrowly focused on the killing of the Qatari security
guard and not for bombing the Hamas office in an effort to kill its
negotiating team in the midst of negotiations which Qatar was mediating
at the request of the U.S.
On Monday, Qatar’s foreign ministry
released a statement acknowledging Netanyahu’s apology and stated that
it would resume its mediation efforts in support of Trump’s plan. Since
Israel’s attempt to assassinate Hamas’s external leadership, several of
the group’s senior leaders have been held in safe houses in Qatar with
limited access to communications. While this has created challenges for
the group to maintain contact with commanders on the ground in Gaza,
sources have told Drop Site they have developed alternative methods.
As
Hamas and other Palestinian groups debate their response to the Trump
plan, the final word will lie not with those in Doha, but inside Gaza.
“That
proposal will come to the leaders in exile. They will look at it, they
will make some decisions. These decisions would also be consulted with
the people in the field in Gaza. They will have to be heard at the end.
They are the ones who control the [Israeli] captives,” Al-Arian said.
“It doesn’t even matter what the people say outside. It’s only going to
be an opinion and they hope that that opinion would be accepted by the
people inside [Gaza]. But the people who are leading in the field in
Gaza will have to make that decision. But I believe, all in all, that
Hamas and the resistance have shown that they have tremendous
discipline, that they are capable of communicating and having a unified
position.”
The flotilla’s 'Orange Line' crossing is the same waters where Israeli forces previously illegally seized the Handala and Madleen aid ships
The Cradle, News Desk, SEP 30, 2025,
The Global Sumud Flotilla reached 150 nautical miles from Gaza’s coast on 30 September, with activists declaring they are now in Israel’s “kidnapping zone” and warning of possible interception within the next two days.
“As we approach 150 nautical miles distance from Gaza, we enter Israel’s kidnapping zone. Keep all eyes on us and on Gaza in the coming 48 hours. It’s about damn time to break the siege,” activist Roos Ykema said in a video posted on Instagram.
Organizers believe the fleet could arrive in Gaza within three days, depending on speed, weather, and the risk of mechanical breakdowns or Israeli attacks.
They have named the 150-mile line the “Orange Line,” the point where previous aid ships such as the Madleen and Handala were illegally seized by Israeli naval forces earlier this year.
Rights groups are calling for demonstrations outside foreign ministries in case of arrests or assaults on the flotilla.
Italy and Spain have both sent warships to follow the convoy, reportedly to escort the aid fleet safely and guard against Israeli attacks.
Most recently, Turkiye confirmed its navy intervened after one of the ships began leaking, with footage showing frigates assisting the flotilla.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said on X that its vessels were operating “in coordination with relevant institutions” and reaffirmed their commitment to “the protection of humanitarian values and the safety of innocent civilians.”
The Flotilla has called on governments, including Turkiye, Italy, and Spain, to move past symbolic gestures and join the fleet to Gaza’s shores, upholding the right to free passage and ensuring humanitarian access under international law.
However, despite the assistance, calls to action, and pledges of support, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni previously dismissed the mission as “gratuitous, dangerous, irresponsible,” insisting aid could be routed through Cyprus and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Her proposal echoed Israeli demands that all supplies be unloaded at Ashkelon under its supervision, a condition flotilla organizers rejected as an extension of the blockade rather than a neutral arrangement.
Several of the Sumud Flotilla ships have already come under attack, including two struck by suspected Israeli drones while docked in Tunisia earlier this month.
An online tracker shows the vessels sailing near Egyptian waters and pressing toward Gaza. Despite tensions, activist Kieran Andrieu reported that morale on board “is higher than it’s been in a long time.”
The fleet, carrying activists, journalists, and artists from 44 countries, is the latest attempt to shatter Israel’s siege on Gaza, where famine grips the population, and genocide continues unchallenged.
Israel has targeted
and killed members of prominent families in the Gaza Strip for refusing
to cooperate with Tel Aviv’s plan to create clan-based governing bodies
aimed at replacing Hamas, according to a report by Asharq al-Awsat.
According to sources, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin
Bet, contacted the representatives of the Bakr and Dughmush families,
who remain inside their homes in Gaza City. The Shin Bet plan includes
dividing Gaza into different regions controlled by clans and local armed
groups.
They would be tasked with confronting Hamas and providing intelligence to the Israeli army, the report says.
“After these families refused to cooperate with Shin Bet officers,
Israeli forces launched a series of raids on inhabited and vacant homes
belonging to members of these families and clans,” the sources told Asharq al-Awsat.
Over the weekend, Israel struck the Bakr family home south of the
Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City. Six family members were killed and
11 were wounded.
A multistory building owned by the family was also bombed, resulting in the injury of several children.
In Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood, Israel bombed a home and killed at least 30 members of the Dughmush family.
“Israeli intelligence contacted the family’s mukhtar and elders and
asked them to form an armed group to govern the Shati refugee camp area
after it purges it of Hamas members. The family categorically refused to
be part of this option,” a source in the Bakr family said.
The Bakr family is one of the largest and most prominent families in
the Gaza Strip. It plays a major role in the strip’s fishing industry.
“The family’s decision stemmed from a national stance rejecting any
form of cooperation with the occupation, and is not intended to support
Hamas or any other organizational group,” the family member added.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also confirmed that
Israel is trying to coerce families to cooperate with them under the
risk of starvation, forced displacement, or bombardment.
“What began as individual extortion has escalated into a systematic,
collective practice aimed at dismantling Palestinian social fabric by
forcing people to betray their communities and subordinating survivors
to survival conditions that destroy communal identity and resilience,”
it said.
Several Israeli-backed armed groups are operating in the Gaza Strip
under Tel Aviv’s protection. These groups, which are tasked with
confronting Hamas, are responsible for much of the aid looting that goes
on in Gaza.
One of these groups is the Rafah-based gang headed by Yasser Abu
Shabab – a Fatah-linked militia leader with alleged ties to ISIS.
The gang is responsible for scouting and securing territory ahead of
Israeli military operations. Additionally, Abu Shabab has been accused
of drug trafficking.
In recent months, more of these militias have popped up.
According to Hebrew media reports, an ex-Palestinian Authority (PA) officer named Hossam al-Astal is
now leading an armed group in Khan Yunis and coordinating with Israeli
occupation forces. The group is reportedly actively recruiting members
and advocating for peace with Israel.
In late 2024, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza established a police force in the strip called the Arrow (‘Sahem’) Unit, aimed at combating aid looters and militias linked to Israel.
The
news that many Western nations have recognized Palestine has driven
Israel and its allies into a fit of hysteria. Israel’s leaders knows
that it is too weak to dominate its region alone.
Palestine Nakba Day demo in Berlin (Photo: Montecruz Foto)
More than three decades after the Palestinians declared statehood and
long after most of the international community recognized that state, a
growing number of Western countries are finally catching up with the
rest of the world.
The recognition of Palestine, most recently by France, Britain,
Canada, Australia, and several others, has been hailed as a game changer
and dismissed as meaningless political theater. It is neither, though
very much depends on what comes next.
Their explanations notwithstanding, these acts of recognition need to
be understood first and foremost as a response by governments aligned
with Israel to growing public pressure to change course as a result of
the Gaza genocide and the unprecedented shift toward support for
Palestinian rights. Concluding that business as usual was no longer a
viable option, these governments opted for symbolic measures like
sanctioning particularly vile Israeli officials, suspending negotiations
on trade agreements yet to be concluded, and most recently diplomatic
recognition of Palestinian statehood.
From the perspective of these governments, the actions they chose to
take were the least consequential available. They do not entail any
concrete policy changes toward Israel or require them to implement
significant measures such as an arms embargo, economic sanctions,
judicial prosecutions, or travel restrictions. Most important, they do
absolutely nothing to bring an end to the Gaza genocide.
Additionally these states have explicitly proclaimed that their
purpose is to salvage the two-state paradigm and breathe new life into
what they call the “peace process.” This has been accompanied with a
raft of demands and conditions about Palestinian governance, political
participation, and even national security policy that are typically
absent from acts of recognition. The entity they would like to see has
all the hallmarks of a protectorate, far removed from an independent,
sovereign state.
Yet there is also a reason Israel and its apologists are having an
unprecedented meltdown over these acts of recognition. If it was the
meaningless political theater they claim it to be, they would have
ignored or at most mocked it. At the formal level, recognition means
that Israel is no longer occupying Palestinian territory but rather the
state of Palestine, a situation akin to the 1990 Iraqi occupation of
Kuwait. The International Court of Justice last year already declared
Israeli rule of the territories it occupied in 1967 illegal and demanded
it be brought to a rapid end. Together these developments have, at
least in theory, put paid to further negotiations about Israel’s removal
from these territories, and particularly about which illegal settlement
blocs it will permanently retain.
More broadly, it will become increasingly difficult for Western
governments to look the other way as Israel continues to pulverize the
state and people without which their two-state settlement remains a dead
letter. If Israel later this month obtains US approval to annex some or
all of the state of Palestine in response to these recent declarations
and proceeds to do so, Western governments will face a moment of truth.
Will they once again respond with empty slogans about two states, peace,
and the rest of it, or will they adopt concrete measures to raise the
costs Israel pays for doing as it pleases in Palestine?
While these are not insignificant issues, they only partially explain
Israel’s unhinged response. The more significant issue, which Israel
understands only too well, is that Western governments are for the first
time since the emergence of the Zionist movement during the late
nineteenth century taking measures in support of the Palestinians in
response to popular pressure.
Previously such measures were taken for different reasons, such as a
desire to placate Arab governments, an exasperation with Israeli conduct
by Western governments, or a desire to serve what they believed to be
Israel’s best interests. But recognition represents the first time
governments have been forced to act as a direct result of massive and
growing public pressure from their own citizens.
It is no longer Israel setting the agenda and terms of debate. The
finger has been removed from the dike, and Israel’s fear is that
continued popular pressure will cause the dam to burst.
It is in this context that Israeli prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s recent statements about his country becoming a “super
Sparta” and embracing “autarky” must be understood. This is of course
total nonsense. Israel is a small state with a small population with
limited resources. It has no hope of dominating its region other than as
a proxy for its Western sponsors and allies.
The past two years have demonstrated how utterly dependent Israel is
on Washington and also Europe for its military and intelligence
capabilities, its economic well-being, and diplomatic and legal
impunity. To a much greater extent than South Africa’s former
white-minority regime, Israel cannot survive without the West, certainly
not in its present form.
Israel’s fears that further public pressure on Western governments
will result in not only declarative statements but concrete policy
changes are therefore entirely justified. It is not as much alarm about
recognition as such as it is anxiety about a failure of Western
governments to divert popular anger by recognizing the state of
Palestine and repeating well-worn slogans about peace and two states.
Predictably Israel’s right-wing supporters in the West have responded
to growing support for Palestine with “great replacement” theory
hysteria, seeking to promote the view that Palestine is an issue that
solely concerns Muslim voters and that this undifferentiated
constituency has bent Western governments to its will in its quest for
global domination. The Protocols of the Elders of Mecca.
Even as popular movements in Western countries seek immediate and
meaningful policy changes to bring an end to the unspeakable atrocity
that is the Gaza genocide and to address the broader issues of Israeli
apartheid and Zionism’s ideology of racist supremacy, seen from this
perspective recognition can and should be understood as an achievement
and even an important one.
It demonstrates that even in a context where the schism between ruler
and ruled is reaching levels last seen before World War II, if not the
nineteenth century, activism can have an impact, does make a difference,
and will compel governments to respond. The challenge before us is to
ensure that recognition is the start of a process that ends with the
liberation of Palestine.
Israel continues heavy attacks on central and southern Gaza despite telling Palestinians in Gaza City to flee there
by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, September 24, 2025 at 1:25 pm ET | Gaza, Israel
Israeli strikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip killed at least 84 Palestinians on Wednesday, medical sources told the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The IDF continues its assault on Gaza City, where it aims to forcibly displace the entire civilian population and raze every building to the ground, but it also continues to launch attacks in central and southern Gaza despite telling the Palestinians in Gaza City to head south.
Al Jazeera reported that an Israeli strike hit a stadium in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza that has been turned into a shelter for displaced Palestinians, killing 12 people, including seven women and two children. Palestinians injured and killed in an Israeli attack on Nuseirat while waiting to receive humanitarian aid are brought to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp, Gaza, on September 24, 2025 (IMAGO/APAimages via Reuters Connect)
“Despite these endless evacuation orders from Israeli forces telling Palestinians to leave Gaza City for the central and southern areas of the Strip, they are still being targeted wherever they go,” said Al Jazeera reporter Hind Khoudary.
WAFA reported that three Palestinians were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid northwest of Rafah, southern Gaza. Among the three killed was Mohammed al-Satari, a 36-year-old soccer player who previously played for the Shabab Rafah Sports Club.
In Gaza City, medics told Reuters that 20 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes on a shelter housing displaced people near a market in the center of the city.
“We were sleeping in God’s care, there was nothing – they did not inform us, or not even give us a sign – it was a surprise,” Sami Hajjaj, a survivor of the attack, told Reuters. “There are children and women, around 200 people maybe, six-seven families, this square is full of families.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update, which it releases about midday Gaza time, that it recorded the deaths of 33 Palestinians and the recovery of four bodies of Palestinians killed by previous Israeli attacks. The ministry said that its violent death toll since October 7, 2023, has reached 65,419, and the number of wounded has climbed to 167,160. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount.
Pro. Ilan Pappe has offered an objective and realistic assessment of what the present recognition of Palestine by a few Western governments means. Not many political activists have bought the charade of recognition because this political step has not challenged the cornerstone of the Zionist colonial occupation and the ongoing unspeakable savagery of the Israeli mass murders of the besieged Palestinians of Gaza and the physical destruction of Gaza.
However, Ilan Pappe also cautiously points to some positive aspects inherent in the recognition and its ramifications. As an old activist and academic, his views carry weight and should be carefully analysed by people who oppose what the US-backed Israeli criminals have been and are still doing, with much bravado and total immunity.
HUNDREDS
of thousands of workers and youth took action throughout Italy on
Monday after Italian trade unions called a nationwide strike in support
of Palestinians in Gaza and against the support given by the right-wing
government of Giorgia Meloni to the genocidal Israeli regime.
While
the governments of the UK, France, Australia, Canada and Portugal gave
formal recognition to the Palestinian State, the Italian government has,
along with Germany, resisted the overwhelming pressure from workers and
youth to make even this token gesture.
While the US is the
biggest provider of weapons to Israel, Germany is the second biggest
supplier of arms and military equipment to the genocidal state, followed
by Italy.
The staunch support of the Meloni government to Israel
and its murderous drive to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza –
for a war that has been massively stepped up with the bombing and ground
invasion of Gaza City – has produced a mass movement by workers and
youth across Italy.
On Monday, this mass opposition erupted
following a call by Italian trade unions and pro-Palestinian groups for a
one-day strike to force the Italian government to ‘choose whose side it
is on’.
The strike demand was issued by the Autonomous
Dockworkers Collective (CALP) and the Basic Union (USB) national
grassroots trade union confederation.
Protests and strikes struck
81 towns and cities across Italy under the slogan ‘Let’s Block
Everything’, the same slogan of the massive demonstrations in France
recently, over government plans to slash workers’ pensions in order to
cut 44 billion euros from the French national debt.
In Venice,
thousands marched with banners reading ‘Gaza is burning, we will block
everything’. Trains and buses were cancelled, schools and universities
closed as transport workers, teachers and students came out on strike.
Italian
dockworkers have been in the forefront of action against Zionist
genocide. Last week, two container ships carrying explosives to Israel
were blocked at the port of Ravenna after dockworkers reported their
cargo to the authorities and refused to load them. In early August,
dockworkers in Genoa prevented a Saudi-owned vessel from being loaded
with Italian-made weapons destined for Israel.
Members of the
dockworkers union (CALP) from Genoa are on board a boat that set off
from the port on 30 August to join the Sumud Flotilla of over 70 ships
loaded with medical supplies and humanitarian aid headed for Gaza to
break the Israeli siege of the Strip.
50,000 workers and youth
took to the streets of Genoa in a massive demonstration of support,
while the dockworkers issued a warning that if the flotilla is attacked,
as Israel has previously attempted, then the dockers will block all
goods headed for Israel and halt all trade across Europe.
One
dockworker told the rally held as the boat departed: ‘If we lose contact
with our boats, with our comrades, even for just 20 minutes, we will
shut down all of Europe.’
This is no idle threat. The port of
Genoa is the key Mediterranean shipping hub for Italy and the EU with
2.74 million containers passing through in 2023, closing the port would
indeed shut down Europe. The dockworkers and trade unions in Italy have
demonstrated the enormous power of the working class.
Their
actions stand in stark contrast to the complete refusal of the TUC in
Britain to organise anything other than lunchtime meetings to ‘discuss’
Palestine or pass harmless motions condemning the mass murder
of Palestinians. The time for simply condemning genocide in Gaza is
over.
The UK, EU and US working class have the power to
end Zionist genocide by forcing their trade unions to immediately call
indefinite general strikes to bring down the governments that
are enablers of all the war crimes and genocide being committed in
Gaza, going forward to workers’ governments and socialism.
Workers’
governments will break with the Israeli regime, and not only recognise
the State of Palestine but provide it with all the material support
required for the victory of the Palestinian Revolution. This is the way
forward!
Israeli
Knesset member Aida Touma-Suleiman argues that in order for the growing
recognition of the state of Palestine to be meaningful, it must be
accompanied by sanctions for Israel’s permanent illegal occupation.
A resistance mural in a rural Palestinian village. Credit: Credit: ISM (palsolidarity.org)
In recent months, as the genocidal killing of Gazans continues, an
increasing number of countries have announced their intention to
recognize a Palestinian state, joining the 147 that already have. Most
of these come from among Israel’s Western allies, with the formalization
of recognition due to take place at a United Nations (UN) summit to
revive the two-state solution, cochaired by Saudi Arabia and France. As
part of this effort, the UN General Assembly endorsed this initiative,
in a resounding show of support with a supermajority of 142 countries in
favor and only ten opposed. (Even one of Israel’s strongest allies,
Germany, voted in favor of this initiative, although it said it would
not recognize a Palestinian state at this stage.) The initiative could
provide strong leverage for the basic demands of the Palestinian people
to live free of Israeli occupation in their own independent state.
This recognition would have been a momentous occasion had it not come
amid a war of annihilation waged against Gaza, and in tandem with a
military-settler offensive against the Palestinian people in occupied
East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Right now, the most urgent demand is
to mount as much international pressure as possible to immediately stop
the assault on Gaza, save its remaining residents from killing or ethnic
cleansing, and prevent the permanent reoccupation of the entire
territory for years to come.
Two Tracks
The world is moving on two parallel tracks: on one side, a wave of
popular solidarity with the Palestinian cause and against the genocide,
including increased discussion of real sanctions against Israel. On the
other side, Israel’s unprecedented brutality against the Palestinian
people, supported unconditionally by the United States.
The most recent example entailed a US violation of the terms of
conditions for hosting the UN in its own country, when Secretary of
State Marco Rubio’s announced a visa ban of eighty Palestinian Authority
officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, ahead of the UN
conference.The very countries now declaring their intention to
recognize Palestine in the coming days have been, and continue to be,
enablers of the genocide against the same people whose right to
self-determination they are belatedly acknowledging.
One of the problems with these two tracks is that they move at
different paces: the translation of public pressure into actual policies
that could curb Israel’s ability to wreak havoc has moved far slower
than the terrifying pace of Israel’s war crimes. Israel’s Western allies
seem to be caught between these two tracks, which has resulted in a
schizophrenic policy toward Palestinians. The very countries now
declaring their intention to recognize Palestine in the coming days have
been, and continue to be, enablers of the genocide against the same
people whose right to self-determination they are belatedly
acknowledging.
Some countries have continued to profit through continued trade,
whereas others have taken a more direct and active role in abetting
Israel’s crimes in Gaza: from UK aircraft carrying out reconnaissance
flights over Gaza to gather intelligence for Israel’s war machine, to
German tank engines that have also been used to flatten the cities of
Rafah and Khan Yunis.
These details help place the forthcoming recognition of Palestine
into context. Anyone who believes this marks the peak of diplomatic
efforts is mistaken. Recognition is not the end of the road but its
beginning. It must be accompanied by concrete actions that guarantee the
survival of the Palestinian people as well as their right to
self-determination.
A Diversion?
Recognition of a Palestinian state may offer Western governments a
way to absolve themselves in the face of mounting public pressure from
Palestine solidarity movements. Polls, protests, and mountains of
anecdotal evidence suggest that the public is disgusted by what Israel
is doing to the Palestinians, and by the indifference and complicity of
their own governments and very often of their own media. They are
mobilized to pressure their governments, and it is to them we look to
ensure that recognition, while important, does not replace the urgent
need to end the war, prevent ethnic cleansing, and stop settler violence
in the West Bank.
Without immediate interventions, the creeping process of annexation
will proceed unchecked, and the already slim prospect of establishing a
Palestinian state will further fade. Recognition of Palestine must be a
platform to turn the tide on the two-state solution rather than serving
as an atonement certificate for states complicit in its very death.Recognition
of Palestine must be a platform to turn the tide on the two-state
solution rather than serving as an atonement certificate for states
complicit in its very death.
Palestinians have a legitimate fear that those states that are
recognizing their right to self-determination will end up not only
making of it a symbolic gesture, but that this gesture will be
accompanied by greater demands on the Palestinians under occupation than
on their Israeli occupier — that recognition will become yet another
cudgel with which to undermine Palestinian rights and well-being rather
than challenge Israeli criminality.
This is not a baseless fear: in statements made by Western leaders
when announcing recognition, several conditions were attached (some in
the UN Resolution itself), including limiting participation in
Palestinian elections to those factions endorsing the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) platform and for Palestinians to agree
that their state would be demilitarized, when Palestinians are unable to
defend themselves against genocide.
Palestinians must get their political house in order, but such
demands cannot be a distraction while Palestinians are enduring
extermination, ethnic cleansing, and settlement expansion.
Recognition Is an Important First Step
In spite of these concerns, recognition of Palestine must be
supported — it is something that my party, Hadash, has long called for.
It is one way of consolidating a global consensus against the
Israeli-American “Greater Israel” project and in favor of Palestinian
self-determination, and is a necessary political task in these terrible
times.
But to be meaningful, recognition must be accompanied by sanctions
for the permanent illegal occupation of the state that is being
recognized. The International Court of Justice, in its opinion last
year, set out the illegality of the occupation itself and some of the
measures states must take to not be complicit, ranging from restrictions
in trade to military cooperation.To be meaningful, recognition must
be accompanied by sanctions for the permanent illegal occupation of the
state that is being recognized.
States such as Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia have already moved to
position themselves in compliance with international law. And there is a
sense that these states are only the first: even Germany has recently
announced an apparent weapons embargo, which would be significant if
properly implemented. The European Union as a whole, however, continues
to fail Palestinians in its inability to pass an arms embargo.
The reason this is so important is not to reaffirm a unipolar order
in its twilight, but because the West remains Israel’s hinterland: where
Israel conducts the majority of its trade, parks many of its financial
assets in Western banks, participates in international sports, and
travels to frequently and visa-free. The West also claims to adhere to a
rules-based and values-based system, and it is therefore the West that
will determine how quickly the gap is closed between the two tracks of
the destruction of Palestinians and holding Israel accountable.
Solidarity in the streets must translate into action in the halls of
power, even if this is happening too late for so many Palestinians.
Recognition is an important step, but it too must be translated into
action.
(Photo credit: Reuters)
