When, amidst his characteristic bombast, US President Donald Trump festively revealed his “Deal of the Century” last week in Washington, he repeated the terms “peace plan” and “Palestinian state” several times. In response, Peace Now has written, “Despite the seemingly appropriate words and the celebratory atmosphere, an examination of the details of the plan, clearly reveal the degree to which it lacks both peace and a Palestinian state. A deeper assessment indicates that the plan not only neglects to advance peace, but also has the potential to severely harm prospects for a genuine peace plan for both parties.”

Statements similar to this one against the Trump Plan have been made by a range of peace and labor movements and appear in this week’s edition of the Hebrew-language Communist weekly Zu Haderech. What follows are summaries of some of these responses from prominent Israeli peace groups as well as three from organizations overseas.

Prominent members of the Joint List lead a protest march against Trump’s “Deal of the Century” in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Saturday, February 1: From right to left, Hadash MK Youssef Jabarrin; (in second row) Secretary General of the Communist Party of Israel, Adel Amer; Secretary General of Hadash, Mansour Dehamshe; first from left, Issam Makhoul, former MK from Hadash and current Chairman of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian & Israeli Studies; second from left, MK Ahmad Tibi (Ta’al). (Photo: Al Ittihad)

• B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, denounced the US plan as “unacceptable” for legitimizing, entrenching and expanding “the scope of Israel’s human rights abuses, perpetuated now for over 52 years.” B’Tselem added that a solution of this sort, which fails to “ensure human rights, liberty and equality of all people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and instead perpetuates one side’s oppression and dispossession of the other,” is not a legitimate one.
• Gisha – The Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, declared in a statement, following the release of the release of the US imperialist plan, that it will continue to promote the fundamental right to freedom of movement for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a “precondition for exercising other fundamental rights and for living a life of dignity,”. Gisha argued that bridges and tunnels presented in the plan are not enough given that the only vision presented is “for enclaves, disturbingly reminiscent of Bantustans, whose residents will be deprived of rights and of control over their own fate.”
• Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, criticized the US plan for giving “a green light to permanently establish an Israeli apartheid regime in the West Bank, including illegal annexation of massive swaths of the occupied Palestinian West Bank that negates the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” Adalah also criticizes the proposal for the forced transfer of over 260,000 Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel living in ten towns of the Triangle region in the center of the country to “a future enclave of Palestine.”
• Ir Amim – “City of Nations” or “City of Peoples” which focuses on Jerusalem within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, published a paper entitled Implications of the US Peace on the Future of Jerusalem calling the plan a “blatant violation” of the status quo of the city’s Holy Sites and a reflection of Israeli efforts in recent years to officially sever the neighborhoods beyond the Wall [Israel’s Security Barrier] from Jerusalem and to accelerate settlement campaigns in the city’s occupied Holy Basin.

American Organizations

• Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) – In the United States, the JVP denounced the US plan as “an apartheid plan” and stated that “international law, global consensus and decades of US policy concur that Palestinian land isn’t for Trump to give away nor for Netanyahu to steal” and “the only way forward towards lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians is through justice, freedom and equality for everyone.”
• Americans for Peace Now (APN) – APN issued a press release calling to reject the US plan because it would be dealing “a severe blow to efforts to achieve real peace between Israel and the Palestinians.” APN called on supporters of Israeli-Palestinian peace, including “friends at major American Jewish organizations,” to distance themselves from the US plan and to take action to rekindle prospects for a viable two-State solution.

International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)

The ITUC, headquartered in Brussels, slammed the US-touted plan on Palestine in a press release saying that “The Trump administration’s proposals on Israel and Palestine are an affront to Palestinian rights and dignity and have none of the elements of a realistic peace plan.” The ITUC added “The proposals, launched jointly by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were drawn up by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has extensive business and financial links with Israeli companies.”

The trade union confederation went on to write: “The announcement this week provides no basis for peace and justice, and has been rejected by the Palestinian Authority. There was no serious dialogue or consultation with Palestinians.” The ITUC went on to denounce the US plan, dubbed “Deal of the Century: as a one-sided formula that favors Israel.”

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow warned that “the US proposals will severely damage prospects for a just and peaceful settlement.” Burrow elaborated, “The US formula would legitimize all illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory; deny the legitimate claim of Palestinians for a national capital in East Jerusalem; leave tens of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel outside Israel; annex large parts of Palestine including giving Israel sovereignty over one-third of Palestinian territory in the Jordan Valley; deprive Palestinians of refugee status; and eliminate UNRWA, the UN agency which is vital to the Palestinian economy. Any possibility of a Palestinian state being created would be decided by the US and Israel.”

“The ITUC stands in full solidarity with its Palestinian affiliate the PGFTU in rejecting these proposals and calls on the international community to reject them as well. The only acceptable way forward is for the occupation to end and for genuine negotiations to take place, leading to the realization of a two-state solution based on United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as capital of a sovereign state of Palestine,” said Burrow.

The Histadrut (Federation of Labor in Israel), a founding member of ITUC, but also a key Zionist organization, has said nothing about the Trump-Netanyahu apartheid plan.

Download as a PDF file Peace Now’s statement on Trump’s “Deal of the Century”