In a joint statement from Washington, the U.S. and Israeli heads of state, Trump and Netanyahu, presented a “peace†proposal called the “Century Agreementâ€. Netanyahu has announced that he will immediately begin implementing aspects of the plan, clarifying that it is not a proposal for negotiation with the representatives of the Palestinian people, but a guarantee by U.S. imperialism for a new criminal offensive by the racist and fascist state of Israel.
Trump’s project surpasses in the ambition of any previous proposal by imperialism. Put forward when Trump is facing impeachment in the Senate and entering a period of electoral campaigning, while Netanyahu has been convicted of corruption and will face the third election in a year in March because the two previous elections failed to produce a parliamentary majority to form a government.
Trump proposes recognition of Zionist sovereignty over settler settlements in the West Bank, making Jerusalem the capital of the Zionist entity and annexing the Jordan River Valley. He proposes the expulsion of 300,000 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to the pseudo-Palestinian state, while denying the right of return to 6 million Palestinian refugees, who under the agreement would no longer be considered refugees. They would also be denied the right to recover their property stolen during the colonization process or to any economic compensation. They could not return to the pseudo-Palestinian state conceived by the plan without Israeli endorsement. There is no provision for the release of Palestinian political prisoners and they impose the recognition of Israel as a “Jewish Stateâ€, so the Palestinians must accept and endorse a racist definition that makes Palestinians, Christians and Muslims with Israeli citizenship, and the Druze, second-class citizens.
In return, a pseudo-Palestinian state would be recognized, like the Bantustans of South African apartheid: with no control over its borders or its air and sea space. “Demilitarized†in the sense that Palestinians are forbidden to arm themselves to defend against Zionist attacks. This pseudo-state would be given two strips of land in the desert to compensate for extensive territorial losses in relation to the 1967 borders, as large areas in the West Bank are being cut off. Gaza would remain under siege. Support for any national and anti-racist initiatives such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is considered a violation of the agreement.
This aberrant proposal is the continuation of Trump’s aggressive imperialist and racist policy on the Palestinian issue. In the last three years, the U.S. government has endorsed the illegal occupation by Zionist forces of the Syrian Golan Heights and recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, announcing that it will install the U.S. embassy in that city. The U.S. closed down the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington and eliminated humanitarian aid and support for the UN refugee agency in Palestine. In December 2019, the U.S. signed an executive order against the BDS movement to criminalise criticism of Israel and equate it with anti-Semitism.
This deepening of the traditional US stance of unconditional support for Israel is part of the attempt to regain influence in the region after the defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan and reflects the presence in the government of Zionist extremists such as the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, or Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy for the region, Jared Kushner, and the strengthening of the wing of the government represented by fanatical evangelicals, who support the state of Israel-based on theological arguments about a new messiah.
Both Fatah and Hamas rejected the announcement by Trump and Netanyahu and generated great protests by the Palestinian people. Already dozens of people have been injured in two days by the action of the Zionist repressors. Netanyahu travelled to Russia seeking Putin’s support, who has maintained very good relations with Israel. Most European governments kept a complicit silence, but the British government went further in welcoming the initiative. Dictatorships in Egypt and Saudi Arabia also welcomed the proposal and called on Palestinians to sit down and negotiate.
From the International Workers’ Unity-Fourth International (IWU-FI) we repudiate this new aggression of the U.S. imperialism and Zionism against the Palestinian people. Trump’s humiliating proposal strengthens the struggle for a just solution, which is the establishment of a single secular, democratic, and non-racist state in the whole territory of Palestine. We call for international solidarity of the peoples of the world with the Palestinian people.
Down with the Trump and Netanyahu agreement! All support for the Palestinian people! We demand the breaking of diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations with the colonial state of Israel!
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
30 January 2020
www.uit-ci.org