OCTOBER 1 — Brace yourself. What Donald Trump and his backers are calling a bold “20-point peace plan” is not peace. It is a spectacle. A performance. A blueprint for injustice masquerading as generosity. And worst of all — it hasn’t even been offered to the Palestinians as an equal partner. It’s a dictate, not a negotiation.
The 20 points in brief
In late September 2025, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a US-sponsored proposal for Gaza. On paper, it looks sweeping:
- Immediate ceasefire and freezing of front lines.
- Return of Israeli hostages within 72 hours.
- Release of ~2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving life sentences.
- Demilitarisation of Gaza — tunnels, stockpiles, and weapons destroyed.
- Phased Israeli withdrawal, replaced by an “international stabilization force.”
- Governance under foreign technocrats, supervised internationally.
- Israel retains a “security perimeter presence.”
- “Redevelopment” and “modernisation” of Gaza through reconstruction projects.
- A conditional “pathway” to Palestinian self-determination, with no firm statehood guarantee.
Netanyahu was quick to clarify: this is not a path to a Palestinian state. Israeli forces will stay. Sovereignty is off the table.
Why this is no peace
The Palestinians weren’t even in the room. Hamas wasn’t consulted. The Palestinian Authority wasn’t included. This is not negotiation — it’s imposition.
And what’s missing is even louder than what’s written:
- No reparations: No compensation for homes bulldozed, lives shattered, generations uprooted. Germany paid reparations after the Holocaust; accountability matters. Why should Israel be exempt?
- No right of return: Millions of Palestinian refugees are written out of history, their claim to their homes erased with the stroke of silence.
- No settlement rollback: The illegal settlements on Palestinian land remain untouched, legitimized by omission.
- No sovereignty: Statehood becomes a dangling carrot, conditional on reforms approved by the occupier.
- Foreign trusteeship: Gaza is placed under international technocrats, with Palestinians reduced to subjects in their own land.
The contradictions
This plan is riddled with double standards:
- Hamas must surrender arms, while Israel retains overwhelming firepower.
- Israel “withdraws” but keeps a military perimeter and veto power.
- Reconstruction is overseen by the same powers complicit in destruction.
- If Palestinians reject the deal, Israel implements it in “terror-free zones” anyway.
This isn’t balance. It’s coercion dressed up as diplomacy.
A blueprint for erasure
This plan erases more than it offers:
- Erases historical responsibility.
- Erases Palestinian voices.
- Erases the Right of Return.
- Erases sovereignty.
- Erases reparations.
It transforms Palestinians into guests in their own ruins, waiting for permission to rebuild under the watchful eye of outsiders.
A ceasefire without justice is only a pause
Let’s be clear: a ceasefire without reparations, recognition, and Return is not peace. It’s the pause before the next massacre.
True reconstruction demands truth. It demands accountability. It demands reparations reaching every family displaced, every home demolished, every child orphaned.
And reparations are more than money — they mean rights restored. Most of all, the Right of Return. Ignoring it is not neutrality; it’s erasure.
The truth behind the spectacle
This “20-point peace plan” is a hollow shell — one-sided, colonial arrogance in the language of charity. Drafted by the occupier and its ally, without the occupied.
You cannot rebuild dignity on dispossession. You cannot rebuild justice on silence. True reconstruction begins with truth, accountability, reparations, and restoration of rights stolen for a century.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
