Donald Trump’s pronouncements about his so-called “Board of Peace” seem far removed from daily reality in the Gaza Strip, where residents are preoccupied with securing water, bread and warmth.

Yet Trump’s choice of members such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair has reopened old questions about the meaning and limits of peace, and whether it is possible to discuss it apart from justice.

‘NOT WELCOME’: PALESTINIANS CONDEMN BLAIR’S ROLE ON GAZA ‘PEACE BOARD’

Donald Trump’s plan to include Tony Blair in the running of Gaza is causing dismay among survivors of Israel’s genocide

BY SHAIMAA MARWAN

 

Inside his tent west of Gaza City, Palestinian journalist Abdullah al-Turkmani says the concerns are not just about Blair as a person, but about what this proposal represents politically.

“We fear that the ‘Board of Peace’ will be a prelude to long-term dominance that entrenches division and erases the unity of the Palestinian people and geography between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” he comments.

Al-Turkmani believes the inclusion of Blair’s name has revived a sense that the suffering of Gazans is likely to continue rather than come to an end.

Palestinian Omar Barhoum, 52, says: “We live in dilapidated tents, and the cold is killing us and our children.

“Meanwhile, Trump and others choose figures from abroad, many of whom have supported Israel or remained silent about its crimes, and then decide what kind of peace is appropriate for us.

“When we heard the names, we felt that this board would entrench a reality imposed on us. Blair’s name, in the minds of many of us, is associated only with war, destruction, and close relations with Israel and the United States.”

He continues: “We feel that the Palestinian people, despite all the sacrifices they have made in Gaza, have lost their role in expressing who represents them and who governs them. Names are imposed on us, and we are asked to accept them by force.”

He adds: “True peace does not need guardians. It needs an end to the occupation and accountability for those who committed crimes against us. We are no longer able to live with dignity. We have lost our homes, our children, and our women, and we are still paying the price.”

‘Ease our suffering’

On the other hand, Gaza is not without less hardline voices, reflecting the extent of exhaustion and despair left by the war.

A Palestinian woman who preferred not to give her name says: “If this board, regardless of Blair or anyone else, will ease our suffering even a little, which has become unbearable – open the crossings, speed up the reconstruction of our homes, bring a normal life back to our children, and stop wars forever – then let it do so.”

She adds: “After the war, we are like drowning people clinging to a straw. We are searching for any sign that tells us our suffering will end and that life will return to how it was. We no longer have the luxury of choice after all this pain.”

Despite the focus on Blair, many Gazans are also following the circulation of the name of the current British prime minister, Keir Starmer, as a possible member of the “Board of Peace”.

Esraa al-Khaldi, an Arabic language teacher who lost her job because of the genocide, says that her intensive following of the news during the war did not give her confidence in putting forward Starmer’s name, or even Blair’s.

She adds: “I listened carefully to the statements and monitored them, and I did not hear from Starmer a clear condemnation of Israel over the famine that has exhausted our bodies, nor an explicit description of it as a crime of genocide. Therefore, it is difficult to believe that his presence on any council would make a real difference.”

She continues: “We do not need symbolic peace boards or international envoys. We need a clear recognition that what we are living through is occupation and collective punishment. Any peace that does not begin from this truth is a lie.”

Regarding Blair in particular, al-Khaldi believes that “the West is still rewarding politicians who turned a blind eye to the war crimes that took place in Gaza.”

In the Palestinian collective consciousness, Blair’s name is associated with his previous role as a Middle East envoy of the Quartet, accused by many of failing in his mission due to his pro-Israel stance.

‘We do not want it’

Ferial Abu Qadous, a 40-year-old Palestinian sheltering in one of the evacuation schools, says: “I am not aware of the names that have been put forward, nor do I know exactly who Starmer or anyone else is. But from his name, he seems Western, and I am against being governed by anyone who is not Palestinian.”

She adds: “When I heard the news, I wondered: Will the candidates for the Peace Board rebuild our house that was destroyed by the occupation? Will they hold Israel accountable for the cold-blooded murder of my sister’s children? Or will they hold it accountable for starving my brother’s children? Certainly not. Therefore, we will not accept them.”

From his displacement tent in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, an elderly Palestinian Mustafa Abu Haddaf says: “We are tired of words. In every war we have lived through in Gaza, we hear talk of peace while we are killed and besieged. If this is their peace, we do not want it.”

He adds: “Any talk of genuine peace will have no credibility unless it is accompanied by political and moral accountability, an end to the occupation, and a guarantee of our right to return to the lands from which we were forced to emigrate in 1948.”

He concludes: “In short, we have not and will not trust initiatives that ignore the true balance of power.”

https://www.declassifieduk.org/imposed-on-us-palestinians-reject-blair-role-on-gaza-peace-board/

 

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         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.