The ‘NY Times’ Editorial Board should be ashamed of their cowardly full-page opinion on the Netanyahu/Trump annexation plan.
Palestinian officials went on the offensive at the United Nations, seeking to rally opposition to Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” but their options are limited.
The State of Palestine that would be created under Trump’s “Plan” would be largely fictitious, with no control over its borders, its security and its population, with a completely fragmented and shrinking territory. This would violate international law, gives Palestinians no rights, and is reminiscent of the South African “Bantustan” project of the 1970s, Francois Dubuisson, professor of international law, writes.
The morning after President Donald Trump committed to recognizing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank during the release of his much-awaited Middle East peace plan, Palestinians protested the deal that would annex the Jordan Valley, the breadbasket of the West Bank, by motoring trackers through an Israeli checkpoint.
The Trump plan kills the charade that the 26-year-old Oslo process aimed for anything other than Palestinian capitulation. It fully aligns the US with Israeli efforts – pursued by all its main political parties over many decades – to lay the groundwork for permanent apartheid in the occupied territories.
Nour Joudah writes, “the debate, the conversation, the driving force for peace and justice in Israel-Palestine cannot be about salvaging a territory of fragmented Bantustans, pieced together with a highway and tunnel.”
The internet is abuzz with comment about Kushner’s interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, during which he said, “[Palestinians have] screwed up every other opportunity that they’ve had in their existence.” James North says Kushner’s nastiness toward Palestinians is no accident, but designed to goad them into rejecting his ‘peace plan.’
In the midst of the global media frenzy surrounding US President Donald Trump’s revelation of his peace plan, a key piece of news got swept up in the mix: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was officially indicted on charges of corruption.
Transforming the one apartheid state created by Israel and given political legitimization by Trump into a single democracy of equal rights for all its citizens is the task before us all.
Today’s front-page New York Times report on the Trump/Netanyahu annexation plan barely mentions Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and includes only one quote from a Palestinian.