Palestine is now the conscience of the world. No deal will change that
Palestine is Now the Conscience of the World. No Deal Will Change That
What US President Donald Trump unveiled in Washington this week was not a peace plan, but a parody of one. Declared as a breakthrough, the agreement was negotiated between an American enabler and an Israeli perpetrator, sidelining the very people it was meant to affect. Palestinians were absent from the process, with no Hamas representatives, no Palestinian Authority delegates—only a hollow performance.
Trump sat smiling beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thanking him for “agreeing” to a plan he had authored. Palestinians, meanwhile, were nowhere to be seen. The deal’s structure excluded their voices, reducing their struggle to a backdrop for a political spectacle.
The arrangement echoes the colonial logic behind the Abraham Accords: forging agreements over Palestine without involving its people. It celebrates “peace” while ignoring occupation, blockade, and ethnic cleansing. The language of reconciliation is used to mask the systematic exclusion of the only stakeholders who deserve to speak for themselves.
An Imposed Agreement, Not a Negotiation
This deal is not negotiation; it is imposition. A surrender disguised as statesmanship, it transforms defeat into a diplomatic victory. Trump’s hand-picked framework offers Netanyahu a triumph he could not secure through force, despite two years of bombs and massacres.
Netanyahu has long targeted negotiators, from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to those in Doha who discussed Trump’s draft. His policy remains clear: eliminate the opposition, dismantle the talks, and then present the outcome as a hard-won achievement. The current agreement is just another step in this pattern.
To legitimize the deal, Arab and Muslim leaders were invited—not to defend Palestine, but to press it further. Their role is to serve as a fig leaf for Israel’s dictates, ensuring the Palestinians are pushed toward compliance. Netanyahu’s remark—“Who could believe it?”—captures the arrogance of this strategy, as he assumes Muslim regimes will willingly endorse Israel’s dominance.
Strip away the theatrics, and the plan reveals itself as a flimsy offering. The only concrete promise is the return of hostages. Beyond that, there are no binding commitments or guarantees of withdrawal. Israeli troops remain in place, and the promise of peace is reduced to vague assurances.
The Tide of Global Solidarity
Despite the deal, Israel remains isolated. At the United Nations, Netanyahu stood alone as 77 delegations walked out, leaving him to address empty seats. Public opinion in Europe and the US is shifting decisively against Israel, with younger generations leading the charge. The world’s support for Palestine is growing, and this trend unsettles Washington and Tel Aviv.
The true purpose of the agreement is to stifle this momentum. It aims to quiet boycotts, suppress protests, and weaken the rising global conscience. By erasing Palestinian agency, the plan replaces it with an imposed guardianship, a “Board of Peace” led by Trump and Tony Blair. Blair’s history of colonial ventures and his bloodstained role in Iraq cast doubt on his ability to guide a peace process.
History will judge this moment harshly. A ceasefire plan that excludes the occupied is not peace—it is a colonial dictate. The language of mandates and tutelage has been revived for the 21st century, echoing the Balfour Declaration’s betrayal of Palestinian land. From protectorates to trusteeships, all imperial euphemisms are reused to silence Palestinians.
As Egypt’s former UN delegate Motaz Khalil noted, this is a “surrender plan.” It silences Palestinians, strips them of representation, and grants Netanyahu the victory he claimed but failed to achieve. The world now sees through the performance, and the legacy of this deal will be one of defiance and displacement.
