Trump’s Middle East ‘peace plan’
The US and Israel have historically been allies and staunch supporters of each other's policies. Despite that, it was a disturbing scene when US President Donald Trump stood next to the smiling Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and drew huge cheers from the crowd while unveiling what he called "the deal of the century"—a plan that strips the Palestinians of their rights and imposes apartheid-like conditions that would effectively make Palestine an Israeli colony.
For the controversial US president and the equally controversial Israeli PM, who is currently under investigation for corruption in a country paralysed by a political stalemate, this "peace plan" is an honest reflection of their views on Palestinian statehood and a golden opportunity to woo their Christian evangelical voters. However, their blatant disregard for the decades of negotiations and resolutions that have been part of the peace process, specifically the UN-sanctioned 1948 lines and the Oslo Accords, almost beggars belief. Not only does it take away huge swathes of land from Palestine and legalises Israeli settlements built on the West Bank in violation of international law, it gives complete security control of the West Bank to Israel, recognises Israeli sovereignty in disputed territories like the Golan Heights and Jordan Valley, and even makes plans for a "population transfer" of Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin to whatever is left of Palestine—which bears a worrying resemblance to the mass displacements of Partition that are still seared into the memory of the subcontinent.
As a nation of people who have lived under the yoke of colonialism and freed themselves from British and Pakistani occupation, we cannot in any way accept a "solution" in the Middle East that does not take into account the voices of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian National Authority. Nations of the Global South must stand together and speak out against injustice in the same way that we fought against injustice, and we urge the Bangladesh government to be a strong advocate for Palestine and lead the way in this respect. It is disappointing to see a muted response from the Arab world, and we urge the international community to now step up and condemn this attempt to use military and economic strength to overshadow the rights of a people to self-determination. After decades of speaking of universal human rights and the equal rights of all people regardless of where they are, it is time for US allies and intergovernmental organisations to put their money where their mouth is and take a stand against injustice, even at the risk of opposing the biggest bullies on the global playground.
Comments