Trump’s Middle East Plan Undermines UN Role
Trump’s Middle East Plan Undermines UN Role
Proposals in President Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People” — seriously challenge the prevailing international consensus and the international law on which it is based, according to a review of the peace plan by the International United Nations Watch (IUNW). The IUNW strongly believes that the best way forward continues to be direct peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis as called for in UN resolutions with the aim of achieving a two-state solution.
Trump’s peace plan means that the Palestinian people would not have a geographically connected country and that they would not have sovereignty over their natural resources or borders. This amounts to a green light by the US administration allowing Israel to confiscate the Jordan Valley, where the West Bank’s most fertile land is situated, and which accounts for 30% of the West Bank’s total area. Giving Palestinians lands in the Negev Desert in no way compensates for land confiscated by Israel such as the annexed the Israeli settlements in the West Bank which divide the West Bank into a series of disconnected towns and villages lacking linkage. The land being offered is not commensurate in value with what the Palestinians have been deprived of. Moreover, the fact that Israel is willing to cede land to the Palestinians that can be reached only via Israeli-controlled roads and that the land in question is in areas that have been used as dumps for e nuclear waste is both troubling and unacceptable.
Israel’s plan to annex West Bank settlements, including annexing East Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian State, is a further contradiction of international law. The same applies to Israel’s plan to give up villages in which Israelis of Palestinian origin live since this contradicts its commitments towards its own citizens.
The IUNW urges the United Nations to play a more active role and ensure that international law is the basis for any peace talks taking place between the two parties. IUNW firmly believes that the US administration should not promote any plan that contradicts this principle. Palestinian refugees should be allowed to return home to their villages and towns as stipulated by the 194 UN Resolution.
