Mustafa Barghouti and Jeremy Corbyn Condemn Trump’s Plan for Gaza

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, addressed the press in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti and British MP Jeremy Corbyn have condemned US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan for Gaza, which would see a transitional international authority run the region, led by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The Trump plan says Hamas must disarm in exchange for humanitarian aid to flow, an end to hostilities and the development of Gaza. The plan does not guarantee a Palestinian state. (Read the 20-point plan here, but it has reportedly changed.)

Speaking at an event in Cape Town on Tuesday, Barghouti and Corbyn said the plan has been drawn up without considering Palestinian voices. The event at the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation was organised by Journalists Against Apartheid.

“The problem is that what was presented to the Palestinian side was not … a plan to be negotiated, but … an ultimatum. Either you accept it or you don’t,” said Barghouti, who is the secretary general and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative.

Trump’s plan, agreed to by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, demands a total ceasefire and the disarmament of Hamas. Hamas must release 20 living hostages and the remains of more than two dozen believed dead. Israel will release more than 250 Gazan prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans detained since 7 October 2023.

Gaza will then be under the rule of a temporary “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee,” headed by Trump, and other members and heads of state, including Blair. Hamas will have no role in the government. (The quoted text of the plan is from BBC.)

Video by Ashraf Hendricks

Trump has given Hamas “three or four days” to respond to the plan, failing which Netanyahu will have his “full backing” to “do what you would have to do”, according to The Guardian and BBC.

“Obviously, during these negotiations, Netanyahu managed to change many things in the plan,” said Barghouti. This appears to be confirmed by an article in the Times of Israel which claims that key edits to Trump plan will slow and limit the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza.

Barghouti said there is no guarantee that Netanyahu will stick to the plan. “We know very well how Israel is capable of inventing things to justify what they want to do,” he added.

“Regardless of what happens, anybody who thinks that Palestinians will give up or stop struggling for their rights is absolutely wrong. Nothing will stop us from continuing this struggle to achieve our rights.”

The plan comes at a time when Gaza City was being “destroyed house by house, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.” “This plan … ignores completely the root causes of the problem, the root causes of what led to the 7th of October, the root causes that led to this war. And that is, in particular, the Israeli military occupation,” said Barghouti,

Corbyn, former leader of the British Labour Party, said: “The Palestinian people don’t need Tony Blair. They need the freedom to be able to live and govern themselves, and that surely ought to be the message that the media is putting out to the rest of the world.”

He said Israel’s actions in Gaza “tick all the boxes of the Genocide Convention”. He thanked South Africa for “having the courage” to take Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“Reflecting that South Africa had been through the hell of apartheid and all the horrors that went with that, and yet had the courage to take the case to the ICJ, I thank them for what they’ve done. I understand that the foreign ministry is committed to carrying on all the way through with the international legal action at the ICJ.”

“South Africa, please keep it up,” he said.

Al Jazeera journalist Youmna El Sayed also spoke at the event. “In this genocide, the basic goal for the Israeli military was to shut us down completely,” she said.

The three speakers also attended a “stop the genocide mass rally” on Tuesday evening at the Wittebome Civic Centre in Wynberg, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

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