Opinion

Trump's Board of Peace: A humiliating insult to Palestinians

Trump’s Board of Peace hands Gaza’s fate to unelected men, enabling Israel to intensify efforts to erase Palestinians & take their land, writes Ghada Karmi.

Ghada Karmi
27 Jan, 2026
THE NEW ARAB


A moment’s reflection shows that the Board of Peace has too complex a structure and too large a membership to be concerned with Gaza alone, writes Ghada Karmi. [GETTY]


As news of Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ initiative broke at the World Economic Forum at Davos on 22 January, some of us wondered whether we were living in a parallel universe.

There was the universe of Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, celebrating the dawn of a rosy future for Gaza - restored infrastructure, water, sewage works, hospitals, bakeries, and, on the horizon, new shiny apartment blocks, neat industrial parks, even an airport; and then there was the other universe of Israel’s non-stop bombardment of what remains of Gaza. In this reality, more than 460 people, including 100 children and three journalists, have been killed since the ‘ceasefire’ last October - and Gaza’s wretched population has been forced into freezing sodden tents, struggling to survive starvation and disease.

Israel has made no secret of its aim to get rid of Palestinians from the country altogether, expelling those who survive its assaults and starvation policies. Supported to the hilt by the US, there is no way Israel will give up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fulfil its wildest dreams: a land cleared of Palestinians, their history and culture expunged from the record as if they had never been.

That is why Israel destroyed every monument and building that could attest to a Palestinian history and presence in Gaza, creating a desert incapable of sustaining life.

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Ghada Karmi

This is the real universe, not the fantasy one presented by Trump and his associates. Even so, he has managed to sideline reality by dazzling everyone with his ‘Board of Peace’ proposal. There is no doubt the Board’s elaborate structure and membership have stolen the show. The ongoing destruction of Gaza and its people, though as cruel and brutal as ever, has shrunk into the background.


UN Security Council Resolution 2803, passed unanimously in November 2025, gave Trump’s plans legitimacy. The Board of Peace he subsequently introduced and which the Resolution legitimised was at first intended to be temporary and applicable only to Gaza. Its chairman-for-life would be Donald Trump, unelected and not accountable to anyone.

Board membership was also supposed to be for three years, renewable, unless applicants wanted to have lifetime membership on payment of $1 billion. 50 membership invitations are understood to have been issued so far, of which more than 21 have been accepted. These include a majority of the Arab states, some Muslim states, and others.

Israel, invited despite its destruction of Gaza which necessitated a Board of Peace in the first place, also accepted membership.

Linked to the Board of Peace is a confusing list of several subsidiary committees: an executive committee of unclear remit whose CEO is to be chosen by Trump, and a second executive committee tasked with running Gaza and whose members include Jared Kushner, Ajay Banga, the head of the World Bank, and Britain’s former prime minister, Tony Blair. There is also a 15-member ‘Palestinian National Committee’ composed of Palestinian ‘technocrats’ to manage Gaza’s everyday affairs, but have no authority otherwise.






So far, a committee chairman has been appointed to the National Committee, but no others. Finally, there is to be a so-called International Stabilisation Force supposed to prevent a renewal of hostilities, whose membership has not been settled due to Israeli objections.

A moment’s reflection shows that the Board of Peace has too complex a structure and too large a membership to be concerned with Gaza alone. Suspicion has therefore arisen about its true function. Is it meant to be a replacement for the UN itself?

The design of its logo is certainly reminiscent of the UN’s, even though it portrays the Americas, not the world, and, unlike the UN’s, is gilded throughout. It makes Trump the effective owner of Gaza and, with his so-in-law’s real estate ‘Gaza Riviera’ ambitions, aims to convert the territory – illegally occupied according to international law – into an investment opportunity.

Other rumours have concerned Israel’s plans for Gaza’s future, none of them benign. Israel is busy entrenching itself in an expanding buffer zone grabbing more and more of Gaza’s land, which may be the first and possibly only site of Trump’s Gaza development. Unsuccessful in having expelled the population out of Gaza, Israel is said to be planning for a giant camp to intern them in Rafah. Its attempts to export Gaza’s people to other countries, including Egypt, Indonesia, Somalia, and the Congo, have so far failed.

The takeaway from these frivolous and dangerous antics, is the basic reality that Gaza is Palestinian territory, and its inhabitants are Palestinians. They must be the only people to decide their own future. How insulting to them that a cast of Western warmongers, has-been politicians, predatory capitalists, and the arch perpetrator of genocide, Israel, should be included in the ‘Board of Peace’ which will decide their fate.

Palestinians have been continually humiliated and oppressed by western colonialism and its offshoot, Zionism, from the time of the Balfour declaration of 1917 up to Trump’s Board of Peace plan in 2026. All have been projects to crush, dismiss, or sideline their rights and aspirations.

It is deeply depressing to realise that the West has learnt nothing in its long history with the Middle East: that to extend respect and friendship in their dealings with its population is far superior to contempt and aggression.

Ghada Karmi is a former research fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. She was born in Jerusalem and was forced to leave her home with her family as a result of Israel’s creation in 1948. The family moved to England, where she grew up and was educated. Karmi practised as a doctor for many years, working as a specialist in the health of migrants and refugees. From 1999 to 2001, Karmi was an associate fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where she led a major project on Israel-Palestinian reconciliation.

Ghada Karmi
Follow Ghada on X: @ghadakarmi

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.