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The United Nations Security Council’s endorsement of US President Donald Trump’s plan is a quantum leap toward peace that will see a temporary international force enter the war-torn enclave and even a possible path to a sovereign Palestinian state.
The next crucial step in consolidating the Trump-brokered ceasefire, it has potential to resolve the crisis that had escaped diplomatic efforts and produced allegations of genocide by a UN commission of inquiry and human rights groups while about 71,000 Palestinians died in Israel’s response to the Hamas raid of October 2023.
The UN Security Council adopts a US-drafted resolution that in effect endorsed Donald Trump’s peace plan.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
After two years, war-ravaged Palestine has a chance at peace with the resolution authorising a temporary International Stabilisation Force comprised of nations in close co-operation with Israel and Egypt. Arab and other Muslim countries have expressed interest in providing troops for the international force.
The resolution also stipulated the establishment of a Board of Peace to co-ordinate reconstruction efforts until the end of 2027. It does not stipulate the board’s structure or membership. Trump has indicated he will be the chairman of the board, but the US will not be involved in terms of troops and money.
The resolution’s inclusion of a possible path to a Palestinian state is especially significant.
Australia has recognised the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own, and the Herald’s Michael Koziol reports that during nearly two weeks of negotiations, Arab nations and Palestinians pressed the US to strengthen the original language about Palestinian self-determination, with the result that the resolution was revised to say that after the Palestinian Authority, which now governs parts of the West Bank, makes reforms, and after redevelopment of the devastated Gaza Strip advances, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.
The final resolution added: “The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence.”
Mention of a path to Palestinian statehood in the resolution has incensed some right-wing and left-wing politicians in Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas rejected the resolution saying it failed to meet Palestinians’ rights and demands and imposed an international trusteeship on the Gaza Strip that Palestinians and “resistance factions” oppose.
Regrettably, the behaviours of both the Israelis and the Palestinians raise questions about the ceasefire holding: Up to 200 Hamas militants have fortified themselves in tunnels in Israeli-occupied territory in Gaza since the ceasefire divided Gaza along the so-called yellow line on October 10, and Israel has continued with air strikes while Israeli settlers persist with attacks on Palestinian villages and farms in the occupied West Bank.
The UNSC resolution has not pleased everybody. But now there is a chance for peace in a Middle East that has seen so many false dawns. The deaths and tragedy that flowed from the Hamas attack should never be forgotten, but the resolution represents tangible progress towards a new day for Gaza and a place in the sun for Palestine.
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