In a rare show of unanimity, alongside staunch supporters of MAGA ideology, even media and capitalist governments that are usually critical of Trump applauded. Reformist parties (Labour, Social Democrats or “Communists”), liberal bourgeois parties (in the sense of democrats) and environmentalist parties are cautiously optimistic, talking about an “opening,” “voices for peace,” and “a first step” … They award the US president, who wants to turn American cities into training grounds for the army, the title of Angel of Peace of the Year.
But Trump’s plan is not a solution for peace. It is an attempt to:
- crush the Palestinian resistance,
- place the national question under inter-imperialist control,
- transform the Gaza Strip into a laboratory for capitalist special economic zones,
- stabilise Israel’s colonial domination.
It stands within a direct continuation of previous false “peace plans” (the 1948 UN partition, the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2003 UN roadmap, the 2020 Kushner-Trump plan, the 2024 Biden plan, etc.), which all pursued a single objective: the recognition of the colonisation of Palestine and the denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
Religious conflict?
The colonisation of Palestine since the end of the 19th century by the Zionist bourgeoisie, with the help of the great powers, has given rise to a national question: Palestinians (whether Muslim or Christian) are being driven from their lands and oppressed by the colonial state (whose founders were notoriously atheist) or other vassals of imperialism (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, etc.). Trump claims that this is merely a religious misunderstanding: “a process of interfaith dialogue will be established” (item 10).
Blackmail for aid
Humanitarian aid, the release of prisoners, and the reconstruction of infrastructure (items 2, 5, 7, 8) are not presented as rights, but as favours granted on condition of political capitulation. The humanitarian disaster in Gaza, created by Israel itself through its blockade and bombardments, is thus being used as leverage to hold the population hostage.
Demilitarisation … unilateral
The main points revolve around the disarmament of Palestinian resistance organisations (items 1, 6, 13, 16, 17). This means institutionalising the deprivation of rights of the oppressed nation. Without weapons and organisations, the Palestinian people would remain subject to coercive Israeli rule and Western imperialist powers.
The terms “deradicalised and freed from terrorism” (item 1), “terrorists” (item 13), ‘demilitarisation’ (item 16) and ‘areas freed from terrorism’ (item 17) equate the legitimate struggle for national liberation with terrorism. Thus, all resistance is criminalised, while the terrorism of an overarmed state and the colonial violence of Zionism are defined as “security” (item 16).
Transitional administration
The appointment of a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” not by the Palestinians themselves but by “the Peace Council led and chaired by Donald Trump” (item 9) is nothing less than placing the Palestinian people under guardianship.
Riviera or maquiladora?
“Trump’s economic development plan” for “flourishing modern cities” and the establishment of a “special economic zone” (items 10, 11) show that this is not about national self-determination, but about integrating the Gaza Strip into the imperialist world order, a pax americana, as a source of cheap labour.
Two occupying forces
The military occupation remains, but it is partly transferred from Israel (for whom it is costly) to an “international stabilisation force” (item 15), which would in fact be an occupying force of Arab or other auxiliaries, not American but under American command. The Zionist army retains a free hand through the right to a “presence within a security perimeter” (item 15).
The myth of two States
It is only if the Gaza Strip is pacified, disarmed, favourable to capitalist investors, and if the Palestinian Authority is “reformed” that “the conditions could be met to open a credible path to self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state” be envisaged (items 19, 20). The conditional tense of the verb (“could”) shows that this is a classic policy of misleading promises: the Palestinian state remains an eternal promise, dependent on the unanimity of the imperialist powers and the approval of Israel, and therefore never realised.
Nature of the plan
The plan as a whole is not a peace plan but an imperialist diktat. It does not lead to the national liberation of the Palestinian people, but to their lasting submission to the interests of Israel and the United States. The fact that Trump himself and figures such as Tony Blair appear as supervisors of a Peace Council administration reveals its neo-colonial character: the Gaza Strip is treated as a protectorate, not as part of a sovereign Palestinian state.
Hamas accepts Trump’s framework
Nevertheless, Netanyahu will have difficulty in getting the racist and fascist parties in his coalition government to accept the plan.
For two years, Hamas has been constantly claiming victory despite the unprecedented suffering inflicted on the people of Gaza and its own decline: the assassination by Israel of its leaders at home and abroad, the abandonment by Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamist regimes in Syria and Iran, and its reduction to sporadic guerrilla warfare in Gaza … Under pressure from Qatar, which finances it, its leadership cannot openly oppose Trump. On 3 October, it sent a positive signal to the mediating states (Egypt, Qatar, Turkey).
On Friday, Hamas said it was ready for immediate negotiations to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and end the war, as part of Donald Trump’s proposed plan. (L’Orient-Le Jour, 3 October)
Following Hamas’ positive response, Trump expressed his delight (“This is a great day”) in a video sent immediately from Washington, and called on Israel to cease its bombing of Gaza, which it has not done at that point.
Defending the oppressed people
The international labour movement and its organisations, parties and trade unions must resolutely reject this neocolonial plan. The following demands are on the agenda:
- Immediate and unconditional end to the blockade of Gaza, opening of all crossing points.
- Immediate withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.
- International campaign by all trade unions to ban the delivery of arms or oil to Israel. As in Spain and Italy, mass demonstrations with blockades of military equipment destined for the Zionist army in ports, airports and on roads.
- Release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli and international prisons, of all activists supporting the Palestinian cause, including those from the international flotilla.
- Full right of return for all Palestinians expelled and refugees, from 1948 to the present day.
- For the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination: the Palestinian people must be able to freely decide their political future, without any UN “international stabilisation force” or “interposition troops”, and without a Peace Council chaired by Trump.
- No disarmament of the resistance, but the right to self-defence against colonial oppression.
- Condemnation of Arab governments which, through normalisation with Israel and collaboration with the United States, are betraying the struggle for liberation, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
- No special economic zones and capitalist plunder projects. The resources of all of Palestine (including Gaza) belong to the Palestinian people and all the workers who live there!
- Independent organisation of Palestinian workers opposed to the Palestinian bourgeois leaderships (Hamas, Fatah, Jihad, etc.).
- United workers’ front in Israel and throughout the Levant: joint action by the oppressed and exploited classes against Zionism, imperialism and Arab monarchies and dictatorships.
- Expropriation of large corporations and capital (in Israel and the region) that profit from war, armaments and construction projects.
- For a unified, democratic, multilingual and socialist Palestine—from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—with equal rights for all.
- For the United Socialist States of the Near East, the only way to permanently link Palestinian self-determination to the mobilisation of the Arab, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian and Jewish masses … and to the overthrow of global imperialism.
Permanent Revolution Collective