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By Sharon Zhang / Truthout
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that he is accepting an invitation from President Donald Trump to join the U.S.-led “Board of Peace” — the colonial body set to have control over and supposedly enforce “peace” in Gaza as Israel bombs Palestinians and freezes babies to death in its ongoing genocide.
The prime minister’s office announced his acceptance in a post on social media. Several countries in the Middle East have accepted the invitation to join the board, including Egypt, which has been key in ceasefire negotiations throughout the genocide.
Netanyahu will sit on the board to envision supposed “peace” for Gaza in spite of his role in destroying Gaza; killing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Palestinians there; being wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court for his Gaza campaign; and his vision for a “Greater Israel” that would involve even further ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and beyond.
Netanyahu’s participation is an indication of the board’s goals — not for “peace,” but rather for a continuation of Israel’s slaughter and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, now institutionalized by a multinational board of world leaders.
Several powerful European countries are opting out of the board. On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that French officials “wholeheartedly support” the U.S.’s “peace plan,” but that France is saying “no to creating an organization as it has been presented, which would replace the United Nations.”
Norway and Sweden have also reportedly declined to join the board, with their respective leaders saying that they won’t participate in the signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, amid the conference there this week.
The “Board of Peace” and accompanying “International Stabilization Force” have been widely panned by critics as a “colonial abomination,” a horrific plan to continue violent control over Gaza on the heels of Israel’s genocide, which has killed over 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza so far, with likely far more deaths currently uncounted.
Under the structure of the board, Palestinians are not given a seat on the board, but are relegated to the “national committee for the administration of Gaza,” at the bottom of the board’s hierarchy.
The U.S. announced last week that it is moving on to the second phase of the “ceasefire” in Gaza, under which the Trump-led “Board of Peace” will convene to decide upon next steps for Gaza, including disarmament of the enclave and reconstruction, potentially guided by Trump’s dystopic fantasy of turning the Gaza Strip into a playground for the rich.
The advancement of the plan comes despite the fact that, as many Palestinians and human rights advocates have noted, the ceasefire never materialized. Israel has continued to demolish and raid residential areas in Gaza, waging attacks nearly every single day since the agreement began on October 10. Gaza officials have recorded 1,300 Israeli ceasefire violations, with the attacks having killed at least 477 Palestinians, including over 100 children.
Just as Netanyahu announced his participation in the board Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes and tank shellings killed 11 Palestinians across the enclave. The slaughter included two young boys, killed by tank fire in central and southern Gaza, and three journalists who were on an assignment by the Egyptian government’s aid committee to film tent encampments provided by the country.Meanwhile, on Saturday, a newborn baby froze to death in Gaza — one of at least eight children to die of exposure to the cold this winter under Israel’s severe blockade of aid materials like shelter.
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Sharon Zhang
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor. Before coming to Truthout, Sharon had written stories for Pacific Standard, The New Republic, and more. She has a master’s degree in environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter: @zhang_sharon.