How the Trump peace plan enshrines Israeli tools of oppression
"Meet me in the middle" says the Unjust Man.
So you take a step forward, and he takes a step back.
"Meet me in the middle" says the Unjust Man.
As I've spent the last few years studying to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this proverb has stuck out in my mind. But at the end of nearly every page of the Trump Administration's "From Peace to Prosperity" plan, I could not help but repeat it to myself. While this plan demands several compromises and actions from Palestinians to delegitimize the ideology that allows Hamas and grassroots terrorism, it accepts and even promotes the occupation-minded Israeli arguments that will allow Israel to justify violation of this agreement again and again. There are three examples of this that stick out as I read the proposal.
1) Israeli Defense Force War Crimes Are Unaddressed
Five separate times, this proposal condemns "rocket fire" from Gaza, and rightfully so. Rocket fire from Hamas and Fatah since 2001 have killed dozens, injured thousands, and terrorized tens of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians. It is terrorism that must be stopped.
However, this proposal does not address the state terror that the Israeli Defense Force has carried out against Palestinians through "targeted killings" and purposeful targeting of protected classes. Between March and December of 2018 alone, the UN found that the IDF purposefully shot and killed 189 Palestinians, including 35 minors, 2 members of the press, 3 medics, and an unknown number of disabled individuals. Over 6,000 Palestinians were injured by live fire, including 159 women, 940 minors, 39 members of the press, 39 medics, and an unknown number of disabled people. During this time, the IDF suffered only 4 injuries from stone throwing and no deaths or injuries from live fire. (1) Put in perspective, this number of Palestinian fatalities in 9 months is over 3 times as many Israeli fatalities from rocket fire over the course of 14 years from 2001 - 2015. (2)
The IDF has also participated in "targeted killings" through missiles, drones, and bombs at least since December of 2000. These targeted killings are meant to kill suspected terrorists directly, instead of arresting them for trial. However, a study from 2000 to 2011 shows that over 40% of those killed were civilian bystanders, resulting in 174 civilian bystander deaths. (3) Again, put in perspective, this category of IDF action alone killed 5 times more civilians in 11 years than Gazan missiles killed in 15 years.
Again, this is not to say that Gazan rocket attacks are in any way acceptable. They are war crimes as well. However, this Trump peace plan seems only to want compromise in one direction. If Palestinians are required to take huge steps to reduce terrorism against Israel, Israel should be required to cease acts of state terrorism against civilians in the West Bank and Gaza through improved rules of engagement and a cessation of targeted killings. However, under the Trump plan, no such problem is acknowledged and no such changes are required of Israel. Only Palestinians are asked to cease from committing terrorism.
In fact, the proposal enshrines Israel's right over Palestinian airspace and, on page 21 of the proposal, we read that "it is unrealistic to ask the State of Israel to make security compromises that could endanger the lives of its citizens." The necessary actions for security, including fatal border security and targeted killings, are still left up to the same Israeli Defense Force that has committed war crimes for years.
2) Border Security and Annexation Are Unaddressed
While the Trump plan claims to allow Palestinians large portions of land from Israel, the central justification for Israeli land annexation from Palestine is justified and enshrined in law. In his book "The Wall and the Gate," Michael Sfard describes how "security" is consistently used as a Russian nesting doll to steal Palestinian land. First, settlements are created as a supposed means to house security forces on the West Bank border. Then, a border wall is required to keep the settlements safe. Then, a fence is needed to keep the wall safe that keeps the settlements safe. Finally, military outposts are required to keep the fence safe to keep the border wall safe that keeps the settlements safe. Through this Russian nesting doll of dubious "security necessities" within Palestinian territory, an enormous amount of land is lost.
As of 2019, over 25,000 acres of Palestinian land have officially been seized by the IDF, an area around 1/2 the size of Brooklyn. But 40% of that land was used for civilian Israeli development. (4) When the West Bank Barrier was built, it annexed approximately 9.5% of all West Bank land to Israel. (5) Over and over again, "security needs" along Israel's border and settlement borders have been used to annex Palestinian lands. The Trump plan does nothing to prevent annexation through this means in the future. Instead, it justifies Israeli actions. If a peace plan does not acknowledge this tool of occupation and barrier to peace, it will happen again, just as the "Outpost Crisis" after the Oslo Accords resulted in continued settlement growth in the West Bank.
3) Palestinian Right to International Justice is Denied
On page 43 of the proposal, we read that the Palestinian state can "take no action, and shall dismiss all pending actions, against the State of Israel, the United States and any of their citizens before the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and all other tribunals (and) take no action against any Israeli or United States citizen before Interpol or any non-Israeli or United States (as applicable) legal system;" For years, the Israeli justice system has argued against the legitimacy of international law and international courts concerning its treatment of the West Bank and Gaza. (6) Instead, it has argued that only Israeli civilian and military courts have jurisdiction. Under this agreement, Palestinians would accept that view of justice. If Israel and Palestine have a disputation, Palestine will have to bow to American or Israeli decisions.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, this looks good for Palestine on the outside, but when you dig into the occupation methodology and war crimes that Israel commit against Palestine, you find that they are justified and even enshrined as just and necessary.
And what happens if the Israeli Defense Force does begin shooting civilians on the West Bank side of the wall? What happens if they decide they need an extra few miles within Palestinian land for "security reasons?" What happens if they begin shooting rockets at Palestinians targets and hitting civilians? Palestinians will be required to go through Israeli or American courts which have already decided in their "peace plan" that such actions are just and necessary. In other words, this peace plan, filled with nice words and expensive ideas, does nothing to undermine Israeli occupation mentality. It is just oppression with a Dead Sea Resort. It is just occupation with a smile.
Sources
(3) "Palestinians killed during the course of a targeted killing in Israel, during Operation Cast Lead," Btselem Report, 2012
(6) International Law and Armed Conflict: Exploring the Faultlines edited by Michael Schmitt and Jelena Pejic, Chapter 19.