Trump's 'Board of Peace' for Gaza to hold first meeting in Washington

On Thursday in Washington, DC, US President Donald Trump will convene the first meeting of his "Board of Peace" for Gaza, conceived under the 20-point ceasefire plan that went into effect on 10 October, and was ratified in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January. 

Trump is the board's chairman for life. 

More than 20 nations will be represented, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday, though she did not immediately supply a list. 

At least 25 nations initially signed up to join the board, so the attendance will likely reflect the membership, though the administration has invited some 60 countries in total. 

Two countries whose leaders have International Criminal Court warrants out for their arrest - Russia's Vladimir Putin and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu - are founding members.

The official X account has been posting digital plaques for every nation that joins the board. 

Independently, some countries have announced their participation in the inaugural gathering, which will be held in the recently renamed Donald J Trump Institute for Peace. 

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Vietnam's Communist Party chief To Lam, and Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto all said they will be in the US capital. 

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan have also confirmed their attendance.

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he will be attending as "an observer", which is a position shared by several European Union members.

Ulterior motives?

Being in attendance does not necessarily imply an agreement with the entirety of the US position on Gaza. Pakistan's Sharif, for example, will reportedly not entertain discussions of Hamas's disarmament. He has, however, shown persistence in currying favour with Trump, having also nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Lam is known to be seeking aviation-related agreements with the US.

And Gulf nations seek to strengthen what have already been very lucrative military, energy, and real estate deals with the transactional US president and his family - namely his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has taken the lead on visualising his "Riviera" aspirations for the rubble-strewn Gaza.

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Kushner has no formal position within the Trump administration, and Leavitt has previously described his endeavours as volunteer work.  

"At the first meeting when we were in Davos, Jared Kushner did provide a very detailed PowerPoint presentation for the vision of Gaza, the reconstruction and the humanitarian efforts, of course, providing local security on the ground. That will be part of the discussion tomorrow," Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.

"How can we maintain security? First, you must achieve security to get to prosperity, which is sort of the second part of this plan. So you'll be hearing more about that tomorrow," she added. 

Thus far, more than $5bn has been pledged by members toward Gaza's rebuilding, Leavitt said, adding that the Board of Peace will determine how that money will be distributed. 

The board's executive body is made up of US officials, real estate moguls, and billionaires, which has raised concern among critics. 

There will also be announcements on Thursday about troop commitments to the International Stabilisation Force for Gaza, Trump confirmed in a TruthSocial post last week.

Chief among them is Indonesia, which is considering a multi-billion-dollar arms purchase from the US, and has already offered up to 1,000 troops to act in a peacekeeping role in the strip. 

“Very importantly, Hamas must uphold its commitment to Full and Immediate Demilitarization," Trump wrote in his post.

Hamas has offered to "bury" its weapons for a long-term truce, but has maintained that full demilitarisation leaves Gaza with no defences against a US-armed Israel.

And Israel has thus far refused any kind of mutual security agreement that would provide assurances to Hamas about future attacks. 

Hamas itself will have no representation on the Board of Peace, even as it continues to hold a stake in negotiations via mediators Egypt and Qatar. 

No mention of Palestine

The Board of Peace charter makes no mention of the words "Gaza" or "Palestinian". 

'If Trump loses interest in the endeavor or is unwilling to serve as an impartial mediator, the chances of future success are near zero'

- Michael Hanna, International Crisis Group

The president has not hidden the fact that he wants to see the board tackle other international crises, given the United Nations' inability to do the same - in his view. 

At last week's Munich Security Conference, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, criticised the board for making no reference to Gaza or the UN.

She added that the original resolution stipulated the board would be “limited in time”, provided for Palestinian input, and that it explicitly referred to Gaza.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy also criticised the initiative.

Spain has refused to join the board, along with most of Europe. The Vatican on Wednesday declined to attend the meeting. And Canada's invitation was rescinded by the US president.

"Without any clear authorization for the expansion of its mandate beyond Gaza, it is unsurprising that many US allies and partners have chosen to decline Trump’s offer to join the Board. Instead, many of the states most invested in Gaza’s future have signed up with the hope of focusing US attention and encouraging Trump himself to use the influence and leverage he has with Israel," Michael Hanna, the US programme director at the International Crisis Group, said in a written statement supplied to Middle East Eye. 

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect.

Those trying to return to Gaza after the reopening of the Rafah crossing have complained of delays, interrogations, and abuse by Israeli soldiers. 

Last week, the UN said that its teams attempted to coordinate eight humanitarian missions in Gaza, but only five were approved. The remaining three, which included a mission to reach a water treatment plant in Khan Younis, were denied by Israel. 

Backlash to the board

Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights adviser who resigned over the organisation's response to Israel's genocide in Gaza, described Thursday's meeting in a post on LinkedIn as "a criminal conspiracy".

"[It is] created by two co-conspirators (US & Israeli regime) involved in a raft of grave international crimes, including genocide, apartheid, unlawful occupation, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and land theft," he said. 

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"The purpose of the conspiracy is to complete the final phase of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, to consolidate the unlawful occupation, to steal the land, and to personally profit from the illicit proceeds of these crimes," he added.

"Every individual that joins the conspiracy and any of its constituent parts, is a participant in these crimes."

That sentiment is shared by other outspoken critics of Israel's two-year-long assault on the enclave, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians.

"This Board of Peace and the ceasefire was what happened when Donald Trump astutely recognized that Netanyahu is losing the propaganda war," Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis told The Chris Hedges Report last month. 

"He brings in the Board of Peace.. to seal the genocide's continuation, to allow Netanyahu to somehow recover... while at the same time continuing the genocide by other means, by means of starvation, by means of not allowing medicine to go hospitals," Varoufakis said.

Indeed, the Israeli clampdown in the occupied West Bank has steeply intensified since the Gaza ceasefire was announced, with settlers setting fire to Palestinian homes and farm animals, and the Knesset's greenlighting of annexation of Palestinian land. 

Trump had promised Arab and Muslim leaders in New York last year that he would not permit Israel to annex the West Bank. 

"If Trump loses interest in the endeavor or is unwilling to serve as an impartial mediator, the chances of future success are near zero," Hanna said.

"It is perhaps the fact that Trump has tied his own legacy to the Board that gives the exercise some chance of success, as Trump will not want to see his most prominent peacemaking achievement collapse."