By Ramzy Baroud 
A major problem in American thinking in the Middle East is the utter rejection of the notion that Palestinian rights are fundamental, if at all relevant, to the coveted peace and stability.
Long before Donald Trump’s first ‘Deal of the Century’ was officially revealed on January 28, 2020, successive US administrations attempted to ‘stabilize’ the Middle East at the expense of Palestinians.
Earlier plans, or deals, rested on the premise of total marginalization of the Palestinian people and their cause. They included the Roger Plan of 1969, and Roger Plan II in the early 70s, which culminated in the Camp David Accords later that same decade.
When all had failed to subdue Palestinians, Israel and the US began investing in an alternative Palestinian leadership, who would be willing to submit to the Israeli will, often in exchange for money and a minimal share of power. The outcome of all of these attempts was the Oslo Accords in 1993, which initially segmented Palestinians politically, yielding competing classes, but eventually failing to defeat the Palestinian quest for freedom.
These are but mere examples. Numerous other initiatives and plans, mostly by the US and other western entities, tried to conclude the Palestinian struggle in favor of Israel without having to deal with the inconveniences of pressuring Israel to respect international law. They all failed.
Trump’s so-called Deal of the Century was another failed attempt. It was situated in previously thwarted Israeli plans centered around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s so-called ‘economic peace‘ in 2009. For Israel, the new ‘deal’ was meant to represent a win-win scenario: ending Israel’s regional isolation, amassing wealth, making the Israeli military occupation permanent, avoiding any accountability under international law, thus permanently defeating Palestinians.
The ongoing Israeli war and genocide in Gaza, the destabilization of the whole region, and the ongoing Palestinian steadfastness and resistance are the final proof that there can never be real peace in the Middle East without justice for Palestinians and other victims of Israeli brutality. No number of future US-western deals and initiatives can ever alter this fact.
The same inference applies to those operating at a less official capacity, but still committed to the same perusal of creative ‘solutions’ to the so-called ‘conflict.’ Such notions may suggest that the lack of solutions reflects the lack of imagination, resolve or the dearth of legal text that makes a just end to the ‘conflict’ impossible.
But a solution is readily available. Indeed, the solution to military occupation, apartheid and genocide is ending military occupation, dismantling the racist apartheid regime and holding Israeli war criminals accountable for their extermination of Palestinians.
Not only do we have enough international and humanitarian laws and court orders to guide us through the process of holding Israel accountable, but more than the needed critical mass of international consensus that should make this ‘solution’ possible. The main obstacle is the stubborn and unconditional US support of Israel, which allowed it to flout international law and consensus for decades.
International law regarding Palestine is not an outdated resolution, but a robust and growing legal discourse that refuses to entertain any Israeli or US interpretation of the war crimes, including the crime of genocide, underway in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Last February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began holding hearings that allowed representatives of over 50 countries to articulate their political, legal and moral stances on the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
While the acting legal adviser at the US State Department bizarrely argued that the 15-judge panel at the Hague should not call for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied West Bank, China’s Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser Ma Xinmin went as far as contending that Palestinian ‘use of force to resist oppression is an inalienable right’.
Later in July, the ICJ issued a landmark ruling that the Israeli occupation in all of its expressions is illegal under international law, and that such illegality includes the occupation of East Jerusalem, all Israeli Jewish settlements, annexation attempts, theft of natural resources, and so on.
In September of that same year, international consensus, once more, followed as the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution demanding Israel to end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” within 12 months.
This is but a footnote in the massive body of international law regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine. And yet more is constantly being added to the already clear discourse, including the latest arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of top Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu himself.
With such clarity in mind, why then should Palestinians, Arabs and the international community entertain or engage in any new deals, plans and solutions that operate outside the realm of international law and standards?
The issue is obviously not the lack of a roadmap to a just peace, but the lack of interest or will, namely on the part of the US and a few of its western allies. It is their relentless backing of Israel and financing of its war machine that makes a just solution in Palestine unattainable, at least for now.
As far as Palestinians are concerned there can only be one acceptable ‘deal’, a deal that is predicated on the full implementation of international law, including the Palestinian people’s right of return and right to self-determination.
Continued US-Israeli attempts at circumventing this fact will never impede Palestinians from carrying on with their struggle for freedom.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
