“Emperor” Trump’s So-Known as Board of Peace Erases Palestinians from Gaza Governance

AMY GOODMAN: We originate up nowadays’s notify having a stare upon the Trump administration’s contested plans for a postwar Gaza. As President Trump formally inaugurated his so-called Board of Peace at the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented his vision of turning Gaza into an upscale, futuristic seaside resort with gleaming skyscrapers and entirely new cities, an ambitious proposal that could require an investment of now not lower than $25 billion.

Kushner outlined the so-called Gaza master concept as he presented slides, one amongst which confirmed a scheme of the besieged territory divided into diversified zones. Kushner stated the first segment of the mission would be to rebuild the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah, which change into once leveled by Israeli assaults. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt is expected to reopen next week. Families in Gaza fear Israel and the U.S. will pass to forcibly displace them to one other country.

That is Jared Kushner laying out his concept.

JARED KUSHNER: We’ve developed ways to redevelop Gaza. Gaza, as President Trump’s been asserting, has fantastic skill. And here’s for the of us of Gaza. We’ve developed it into zones. In the starting up, we had been toying with the postulate of asserting, “Let’s fabricate a free zone, and then we get a Hamas zone.” After which we stated, “You know what? Let’s honest concept for concept for catastrophic success.”

AMY GOODMAN: President Trump presented his concluding remarks on the concept Thursday, asserting, quote, “We’re going to be very successful in Gaza.”

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’m a real property person at heart. And it’s all about set. And I stated, “Explore at this set on the ocean. Explore at this gorgeous piece of property, what it would be for thus many individuals. It’ll be so, so huge. Those who’re living so poorly are going to be living so successfully.”

AMY GOODMAN: This all comes as Palestinians in Gaza war to outlive with puny meals or safe haven ensuing from Israel’s relentless blockade of humanitarian serve. That is Mohammed Al-Qudra in Khan Younis responding to Trump’s concept for Gaza.

MOHAMMED AL-QUDRA: [translated] No subject how mighty he says, it’s all in vain. Why? Attributable to we, as voters, aren’t seeing any real alternate on the bottom. The struggling stays the identical. Rain. There don’t seem to be any tents, no shelters, as you can per chance watch, the destruction. Wood, we don’t get that. … President Trump announced that the 2nd segment had begun, nonetheless we haven’t viewed anything else. Of us in al-Mawasi are living in tents, displaced. Of us within the east can’t reach their properties. That you just’ll be ready to hear the taking pictures, the shelling, day and night, martyrs.

AMY GOODMAN: For extra, we’re joined by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, the award-successful journalist and Middle East-North Africa editor at Drop Position Files. His new piece is headlined “Leaked Documents: ‘Planned Neighborhood’ in Rafah Would Power Palestinians into Israeli Panopticon.” He’s becoming a member of us from Los Angeles.

Sharif, thanks so mighty for being with us on Democracy Now! Start out by responding to what took hassle the day gone by in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump, surrounded by many autocrats of the world, signing on to a structure agreement for the so-called Board of Peace, which Trump will lead even past his presidency, lead indefinitely. He personally has veto vitality and is to blame of the money, it sounds as if one billion greenbacks a seat for those that will be segment of this Board of Peace. Whenever you can per chance acknowledge to that and then lay out what you’ve learned from leaked paperwork?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Just. Well, it’s one billion greenbacks to get everlasting — a everlasting seat. Of us who signed up rating three years.

However, you know, if we search at the structure of the Board of Peace, there’s no notify of Palestine. There’s no notify of Palestinians. There’s no notify of Gaza. There’s no notify of the good-wanting of return. There’s no notify of the good-concerned to self-dedication.

What it does advise is that, you know, Trump is chairman for existence, and it affords him these king-love powers, where he can only be changed if he resigns or if he’s deemed incapacitated below — nonetheless it desires to be a unanimous vote, that, you know, is roughly impossible. He can appoint new member states. He can veto any dedication.

And so, you’ll be in a position to need this Board of Peace. That that you just must honest get what’s called the founding Government Board below that, that has of us love Jared Kushner, Marco Rubio and others on it. After which you’ll be in a position to need one thing below that called the Gaza Government Board, which is made up of Palestinian technocrats that are supposed to implement these insurance policies.

So, here’s almost a farcical manifestation of colonialism within the twenty first century. It’s roughly love a parody of a colonial body. You know, whereas you happen to had proposed this about a years within the past, you can had been laughed out of the room, other than that now it’s truly real.

And at the match the day gone by — you played a clip of it — Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, you know, delivered this presentation of what he called the “master concept” for Gaza’s redevelopment and reconstruction. And yeah, you saw these roughly — you know, these renderings of excessive coastal towers and mixed zones and so on. It looked love an AI fantasy.

And let me honest advise, one amongst the — one amongst the slides within the presentation integrated Arabic script incorrectly written in reverse, so from left to good-wanting — Arabic script is written from good-concerned to left — and with the letters disconnected. So, I indicate, you know, it’s arduous to take these of us seriously. I indicate, they’re buffoonish. However the speak of affairs is, is that they defend watch over the biggest defense force and financial system within the world.

So, nonetheless what we truly — you know, when he talks about residential zones and the diagram in which forward for Gaza, we truly now get a watch of what is genuinely being planned. And it’s extremely horrifying. It’s very Orwellian.

So, first, what we have to clutch is that Gaza has successfully been prick in half. So, after October tenth, the Israeli defense force withdrew to what’s called now the yellow line, and so that they own and defend watch over over 50% of the Gaza Strip. And prognosis of satellite tv for computer imagery by Forensic Structure, that we published at Drop Position Files, reveals how Israel is physically altering the geography of the land in that segment of Gaza east of the yellow line that it does defend watch over. So, what they’re doing is they’re establishing a form of defense force infrastructure. There’s been 13 defense force outposts constructed honest since the ceasefire, so now there’s one thing love 48 or 50 defense force outposts in this operate. They’ve also constructed roads that are being connected to bases and settlements originate air of Gaza in Israel. And what they’re doing, genuinely, is establishing info on the bottom — here’s what Israel repeatedly does — info on the bottom that will at closing change into everlasting. And genuinely, honest the day gone by, we chanced on out that Israel is digging a trench that is many meters deep alongside the yellow line in Gaza, usually to forestall Palestinians from crossing from one aspect to the other, to the aspect that Israel controls. So Gaza is actually being prick in half with a moat.

So, here’s the new fact. And what they’re doing, as successfully as to this construction of defense force outposts and roads, could be systematic destruction of Palestinian property, of buildings and of infrastructure. And what we chanced on, what Forensic Structure chanced on by diagram of the satellite tv for computer prognosis, is that there’s one sq. kilometer between two defense force corridors in southern Gaza, in Rafah, where Israel is engaged in a pattern that’s now not viewed anywhere else. What they’re doing is they are razing the land, they’re compacting the bottom, and so that they’re clearing the rubble. And they’re doing this in a mode that means here’s the placement of the first so-called residential zone, or planned community, where it’s going to be constructed. And we know that they’re starting in Rafah.

And so, what’s going to this so-called planned community search love? Final week, the Civil-Military Coordination Heart, the CMCC, which is a U.S.-led body, held a presentation for this so-called planned community. Now, the CMCC change into once established by CENTCOM a week after the ceasefire went into live. It’s led by a U.S. Military lieutenant frequent, you know, and it’s speculated to oversee and video show the implementation of the ceasefire. And it’s positioned in this, you know, huge warehouse in southern Israel. And closing week, they held this huge presentation for this planned community, that’s speculated to accommodate up to 25,000 Palestinians in Rafah. And we obtained leaked paperwork of this presentation, and so that they roughly very meticulously define what this operate goes to search love. It goes by diagram of, you know, the municipality, the financial system, health, training, law and mutter. And after truly reviewing a transcript of these supplies, which we sent to Jonathan Whittall, who is a weak senior U.N. loyal, you know, in Palestine from 2002 to 2005 — I’m sorry, 2022 to ’25. He stated that these new communities, constructed on the rubble of of us’s properties, are now not only governance labs to take a look at final defend watch over and subjugation, nonetheless they’re also the reincarnation of refugee camps.

So, we can fight by diagram of, you know, some of what these paperwork notify. So, let me honest temporarily advise. So, first, it affords a hassle of criteria for deciding which Palestinians will be, quote, “invited” to are living there. And this entails undergoing security checks to forestall the entry of what they called Hamas facets. It doesn’t specify who’s going to be doing these security checks, nonetheless historically in Gaza, inch of Palestinians, as an illustration, in and out of Gaza has repeatedly been managed by COGAT, which is the branch of the Israeli defense force that oversees the occupation of the West Financial institution and Gaza. So, to enter the so-called housing zone, or planned community, Palestinians will have to pass by diagram of a security checkpoint, and everyone coming into will be registered with biometric documentation to enable them to pass around, to enable them to rating admission to companies and products, and that registry will be in step with Palestinian ID numbers in coordination with COGAT. So, you know, the Israeli defense force already has an fantastic amount of monitoring and surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza, nonetheless this affords them but one other layer of monitoring by diagram of biometric documentation.

For the financial system, as an illustration, it brings all financial transactions below elevated surveillance. So, Gaza, historically, has a money-essentially based totally financial system. Now Palestinians living in this zone will utilize one thing called digital shekel wallets to live transactions. It also says that residents desires in squawk to import products into Gaza, nonetheless those products will be field to security checks at the crossings. It makes no notify of the fact that Israel controls the total crossings. And as we know, for the closing two decades, they’ve enforced a siege on Gaza where they prevented many items from coming in.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Sharif? Sharif?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And in all likelihood most — shuffle forward, Juan.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, Sharif, if I will be able to honest interrupt you. I’m honest making an try to rating a sense of the field of the so-called Palestinian technocrats, that are supposedly — that will be supposedly enforcing this. Also can you issue about that aspect of it and the connection of these so-called technocrats to the resistance forces inner Gaza?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, I indicate, these are diversified of us, amongst them, Ali Shaath, who is the head of it, who’s a weak member of the Palestinian Authority. You know, he’s the one who announced at the match, by diagram of video hyperlink, the day gone by at Davos that the Rafah border crossing will be originate in each and every ways next week. They’re chosen to, you know, implement these insurance policies on the bottom. Originally, the postulate change into once that diversified Palestinian factions would appoint this roughly committee by diagram of a democratic project, nonetheless that didn’t happen. They had been honest chosen by the U.S., by Israel and so on.

The response of Palestinian factions to their appointments has been truly attention-grabbing. They haven’t — they haven’t outright condemned them for becoming a member of this. Hamas set out an announcement that appears semi-supportive of them. And I maintain, you know, they’ve been set ready where any Palestinian roughly enter to take a study and rating some serve into Gaza, to take a study and ease the struggling of Palestinians, to take a study and, you know, serve engineer what the diagram in which forward for Gaza will be, change into once roughly welcome. However the speak of affairs is, is that they are multi layers down in this hierarchical construction, this colonial mandate construction that is overseeing Gaza. That that you just must honest get the Board of Peace. That that you just must honest get Trump as emperor of it. That that you just must honest get this founding Government Committee. After which, you know, they’re below that. They get got fully no sovereignty, no defend watch over and no real advise over the alternatives of the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And also you’ve written that this proposed — this major proposed residential zone is continuously known as the Emirati compound. Also can you issue concerning the operate of the UAE in all of this?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Yeah, it’s referred to within the presentation as the Emirati compound. It’s unclear, you know, why that name change into once chosen. There could be the Emirati Discipline Scientific institution in Rafah, that’s now not a ways from the placement where this major zone is being constructed.

Now, you know, below the educational segment of this presentation for — here’s per chance the roughly love the most Orwellian segment of it. It says that they get to create schooling and a curriculum that, quote, “could now not be Hamas-essentially based totally nonetheless will apply ‘Custom of Peace’ principles, e.g., modeled after the UAE,” terminate-quote. Now, that phrase, a “Custom of Peace,” is talked about within the normalization agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel that change into once signed in 2020 as segment of the Abraham Accords. Now, since then, the UAE has normalized relations with Israel extra than any other Arab country. They get got very sturdy exchange, tourism, defense affords, surveillance, love, tech affords. And it sounds as if this theory of — you know, the educational notion for this housing zone is aimed at promoting an Emirati-impressed reeducation program that will promote normalization with Israel.

And, you know, the closing thing I’ll advise about this presentation is that it also says that the land on which it’s being constructed, they get to search the non-public rights of Palestinian property holders, so that they are going to watch about mechanisms for compensation to those — you know, whoever’s land it once change into once. They get got the nerve to notify non-public property rights of Palestinians in Gaza, where virtually the total population has been displaced, largely extra than one instances. Almost every constructing has been broken or destroyed outright. And, you know, there’s a genocide, where Israel has created the instances of existence calculated to bring concerning the physical destruction of Palestinians. And so, they coldly issue about non-public property rights as if — and compensation, as if this genocidal war, that we’ve all witnessed for over two years, by no diagram took hassle. However, genuinely, you know, that’s the vision of what’s to shut support.

We heard Jared Kushner advise, you know, “We’re now not going to live the free zone and the Hamas zone.” And he’s relating to those two facets of the yellow line, which is roughly how it stands, you know, one aspect where most Palestinians are, and the other aspect that’s managed by Israel. He stated, you know, “We prefer” — what did he advise? — “catastrophic success.” And also you saw the rendering displaying all of Gaza.

I don’t assume that’s what’s truly going to happen. We’re seeing now, as I talked about before, there’s a trench actually being constructed that’s splitting Gaza in half. Israel is consolidating defend watch over. And what you’re going to get is these Orwellian housing zones where Israel and originate air forces get complete financial, social and security defend watch over over every aspect of the lives of a new generation of dispossessed Palestinians who’re corralled into these spaces. After which, in this roughly love other half of Gaza, you’re going to be left with Palestinians living in a barren operate, where no construction is allowed to be performed, that’s below fixed assault by Israeli bombs, where there’s usually any meals, there’s usually any safe haven, and so that they’re, you know, left to outlive below instances of genocide. And here’s the lengthy bustle that they’re making an try to write for Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, we honest get a minute, nonetheless I had to query you concerning the assaults that continue in Gaza, killing now not lower than 11 Palestinians Wednesday, including three journalists who had been working with the Egyptian Committee for Gaza Reduction. Mohammad Qeshta, Abdul Ra’ouf Shaath and Anas Ghunaim had been killed when an Israeli missile struck their automobile. Shaath change into once a contributor to CBS Files, Agence France-Presse. He had honest gotten married. Mohammed Mansour of the Egyptian Committee for Gaza Reduction condemned Israel’s assault on the journalists. That is what he stated.

MOHAMMED MANSOUR: [translated] What took hassle is a extremely huge crime committed by the Israeli military by concentrating on a crew belonging to the Egyptian committee. This crew change into once now not firing rockets nor fighting the Israeli military. The Egyptian committee’s crew change into once on a humanitarian mission. This crew is procuring day and night for a safe haven to accommodate our of us.

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, can you notify us about these three journalists? Any other time, in step with the Global Federation of Journalists, now not lower than one thing love 258 journalists and media employees had been killed in Gaza within the closing two years.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Yeah, as you talked about, here’s Mohammad Qeshta, Anas Ghunaim and Abdul Ra’ouf Shaath, who change into once truly a contract cameraman and a longtime cameraman for CBS Files and Agence France-Presse. And they had been killed whereas they had been in their automobile recording footage of a tent encampment for displaced of us in central Gaza. They had been killed a pair of mile a ways from that camp. The Egyptian committee that hired them, that they had been working for, stated the auto change into once clearly marked, and but the Israelis bombed it anyway.

And here’s segment of a pattern that we’ve viewed over the past two years, where the Israeli defense force has killed an extra special sequence of journalists with complete impunity. And it came as world leaders are gathering in Davos and talking about, you know, so-called a Board of Peace and so on. And it’s sad to vow that almost all of these killings of journalists, of Palestinian civilians every single day usually rating waves anymore. It’s change into normalized within the world for Palestinians to die. And the world has allowed this to happen. And here’s, you know, but one other blow to the journalistic community in Gaza, that has suffered extra than we’ve viewed, you know, in any segment of the world in generations.

AMY GOODMAN: And extra than only a blow to the journalists of Gaza, nonetheless to the journalists of the world. Sharif Abdel Kouddous, we thanks so mighty for being with us, award-successful journalist, the Middle East-North Africa editor at Drop Position Files. We’ll hyperlink to your piece headlined “Leaked Documents: ‘Planned Neighborhood’ in Rafah Would Power Palestinians into Israeli Panopticon.”

Next up, we shuffle to Minneapolis. We’ll issue with the lawyer for Nekima Levy Armstrong, who’s gentle in penal advanced after being arrested for peacefully protesting in a St. Paul church where a top ICE loyal serves as pastor. Stick with us.

AMY GOODMAN: “Rhythm of Worship” by Ahmet Ali Arslan.