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Fateh Azzam is a Palestinian member of the Maine Coalition For Palestine. He is retired after acareer in human rights and humanitarian law with international organizations, academia andthe United Nations. On Friday, Oct. 10 — the 734th day of the Gaza genocide — the Israeli Knesset ratified President Trump’s plan for a ceasefire and framework for longer-term peace in Gaza, days after Hamassignaled its acceptance. The ceasefire offered welcome relief after two years of brutal devastation by Israel that has killed or maimed more than 10% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, reduced more than 90 % of its housing to rubble, destroyed the educational institutions entirely and devastated Gaza’s health care system and life-sustaining infrastructure, including water and sanitation. This genocidal destruction was funded with $33 billion in U.S. weapons and ammunition. Everyone celebrated, hostages and political prisoners were exchanged and jubilantly welcomedhome. Is it over? Not by any stretch of the imagination. With the ink still drying on the agreement, Israel continued daily bombings and killings of civilians, including entire families, albeit at a slower rate; more than 200 people have been killed in the last few weeks. The promised 600 daily truckloads of humanitarian aid have not materialized, not even for one day, and Israel remains in full physical occupation of half of the Gaza Strip. Beyond the exchange of Israeli and Palestinian captives, Trump’s deeply flawed plan is more political theater than diplomatic breakthrough. The plan cements Israel’s destruction of Gazaand Palestinians get nothing, not even a voice in their own affairs. No Palestinians were involved in developing this “deal.” Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and discredited former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were. Israel was consulted extensively beforehand and got all it wanted. Palestinians were told to accept it or face even more devastation. The framework for this agreement imposes all longer-term obligations on the Palestinians, andno protection. Palestinians are expected to “disarm” and “de-radicalize,” but not the Israeligovernment, which is composed of genocidal extremists unabashedly pursuing the creation ofGreater Israel through ethnic cleansing and annexation. The plan does not include any security guarantees for Palestinian civilians against the continuation of Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Instead, it gives Israel a carte blanche to pursue whatever and whomever it deems “radical” or a “terrorist.” There are no objective criteria, no guardrails or limits and certainly no accountability for Israel anywhere in the agreement. What was rammed through and celebrated in Cairo by Trump and his autocratic Arab friendsoffers Palestinians no decision-making roles in their own affairs. Gaza is to be run by an“International Peace Board” chaired by Trump, and enforced by a temporary “InternationalStabilization Force” composed of U.S. allies, presumably including some of those autocraticfriends. The only role for Palestinians is in executing administrative duties and to be “retrained” for security. Essentially, Palestinians will be relegated to enforcing their own occupation. Nowhere in the 20-point plan is there a reference to any Palestinian rights, only to “aspirations.” The language of self-determination is entirely absent. It is replaced by the U.S. facilitating negotiations with Israel to find a “political horizon” and a “credible pathway” to “co-existence.” It’s as though 30 years of such “negotiations” after the Oslo agreement neverhappened. This deal is far from the “peace” loudly declared by Trump. Rather, it is a recipe for a permanent American-Israeli occupation and real estate development in Gaza — a possible firststep toward Trump’s “Riviera of the Middle East.” Meanwhile, Israel is free to continue creating facts on the ground. It has already vowed to buildJewish-only settlements in Gaza and to steal its offshore oil fields. As its soldiers and settlerswork hand-in-hand to continue their ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, alaw to annex most of the West Bank has already passed preliminary reading in the Knesset. Never mind international law, never mind decisions of international courts, never mind anymoral imperatives whatsoever. I wonder how long before the next battle breaks out.
