THE disgraceful spectacle that unfolded in two acts on Monday October 13 — first in the Knesset chamber in Tel Aviv, followed a few hours later by the scenes in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt — jointly choreographed and directed by Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, exposed the realities of the plan devised for Palestine and her sons and daughters.

It is now abundantly clear that the “20-Point Trump Plan,” which was drafted with the support of Netanyahu in full co-ordination with well-known pro-zionist figures, was merely a framework for securing the return of Israeli hostages and drawing a line under the bloodshed of the last two years — the continuation of which was becoming increasingly detrimental to the interests of US imperialism, the Israeli government, and their reactionary allies.

From the perspective of advocates for peace and the rights of the Palestinian people, this plan was nothing more than window dressing for the full implementation of Israeli conditions and the consolidation of the current status quo in Israel’s favour.  

Dr Mustafa Barghouti has warned that the plan “does not address the roots of the crisis (occupation, land, national rights) and that Netanyahu will likely not commit to it.”

The reality is that the Trump plan was drafted with a focus on three main axes: conditional prioritisation of peace and the release of Israeli hostages, the political re-engineering of the sovereignty of Gaza (essentially making it a protectorate), and the deferral of the realisation of fundamental national rights for the Palestinians.  

Instead of promoting peace, it entrenches structural injustice.
Although the plan emphasises a ceasefire and the exchange of prisoners, the realisation of these two elements is tied to destructive political conditions, the result of which is the disregard of the Palestinian people’s right of resistance against occupation.  

There is also no clear guarantee included for a permanent and complete end to Israeli aggression. In this plan, the political sovereignty of Gaza is taken out of Palestinian hands and entrusted to an “apolitical technocratic committee” under the supervision of a “board of peace” led by Donald Trump himself. This measure constitutes unilateral interference in the exercise of Palestinian autonomy, let alone national sovereignty.

In this plan, insistence is placed on disarmament and a change of sovereignty. However, vital issues for the Palestinian nation, especially the formation of an independent Palestinian state within the internationally recognised borders as they stood on June 4 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, are deliberately left vague or kicked into the long grass.  

Thus, the fundamental and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are essentially sacrificed for Israel’s security demands.

This plan, rather than being disposed towards a just peace, an end to the occupation, and the establishing of an independent Palestinian state, is a unilateral imposition of Israel’s long-term objectives — one that seeks to leverage the devastation and desperation resulting from two years of genocide against the Palestinians.

Of course, bringing to an end per se the horrific bloodshed and displacement of the people of Gaza is an “urgent moral and humanitarian priority,” which must be realised “without political preconditions.”  

And any aspect of the plan that leads to an immediate ceasefire, the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the withdrawal of occupying forces is a step forward and to be welcomed.

However, overall, a plan whose essence is the disregard of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, the annexation of occupied territories to Israel, the erasure of the Palestinian refugee issue, and the weakening of their legitimate representation through the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) is, in reality, not a peace plan but a blueprint for the consolidation of occupation and injustice.

And the inherent flaws in Trump’s supposed peace plan have been laid absolutely bare in the days since the winged razzmatazz that accompanied its signing in Sharm El Sheikh, with at least 100 Palestinians murdered by Israel and at least 250 more maimed during this period.  

It is clear that Netanyahu, under pressure from his extremist bedfellows in government, is straining at the leash to resume the genocidal bloodshed in Gaza even on the flimsiest of pretexts.  

Indeed, Itamar Ben-Gvir has publicly stated that now the live hostages have been returned, Israeli forces should resume the war and “open the gates of hell upon Gaza,” warning that he and his far-right allies would quit (and thereby bring down) the government of Netanyahu unless the latter moves to dismantle Hamas completely and achieve “total victory.”

Seemingly cognisant of the manifest shakiness of the ceasefire, despite the continuously blustery rhetoric emanating from the Trump administration, both US Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made urgent visits to Israel over recent days in a frantic attempt to shore up Trump’s deal as the cracks continue to spread. Even with their presence, on Wednesday, far-right ministers passed a Bill in the Knesset calling for the annexation of the West Bank.

And, in an embarrassing response to Saudi Arabia’s apparent reservedness towards Trump’s “peace deal” and the reassertion of its position regarding conditions for its future inclusion in the US-desired expansion of the “Abraham Accords,” Bezalel Smotrich openly directed an insult at the kingdom.  

“If Saudi Arabia tells us ‘normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state,’ friends — no thank you, keep riding your camels in the Saudi desert,” remarked the Israeli finance minister.

While these developments, underscoring Israel’s stance as a bad-faith actor in the Middle East as well as the legitimate reservations of the Palestinian people and their popular representatives about “The Plan,” were wholly predictable, they do not bode well for the future of Trump’s supposed epoch-defining deal or for peace in the region.

Despite some initial overtures towards the Palestinian Authority at Sharm El Sheikh, seemingly orchestrated by French President Emmanuel Macron, it is clear that Trump’s deal neither enfranchises any of the representative or popular Palestinian currents nor envisages any clearly defined route to Palestinian statehood.

There can be no solution without the realisation of the key demands of the Palestinian people and giving effect to the Beijing declaration on “Ending Division and Strengthening Palestinian National Unity” signed in July 2024 by Fatah, Hamas, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP), and the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI, al-Mubadara), as well as eight other Palestinian parties.  

The core tenets of this declaration are for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza; joint efforts towards the post-conflict governance of Gaza under the principle of “Palestinians governing Palestine” with a government of national unity; maximisation of Palestinian unity within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO); and critically, the establishment of the independent state of Palestine. 
 
Advocates of peace and justice, and defenders of the national sovereignty of the peoples of the Middle East, have unequivocally declared that the immediate priority is the instantaneous end to Israeli aggression, the genocidal war and the lifting of the siege on Gaza.  

This must not be tied to any political conditions. A just and lasting solution and enduring peace are only possible through the complete termination of the Israeli occupation, the formation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders, and the realisation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees in accordance with international resolutions on the issue.