In support of the US peace plan for Gaza, President Trump proposed a “Board of Peace” as a transitional governmental authority to ensure Israeli military withdrawal from the territory. It was empowered by the UN Security Council to act on the organization’s behalf as a presumably neutral body to ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance, rebuild the region that has been physically devastated from war, and oversea security in the return of refugees who had fled the conflict. But as introduced by the American President at the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos in January, it has become a controversial body. Trump has advanced a vision of the body that could challenge the UN and a plan for countries to pay the US (or potentially the President himself) in a sort of “pay to play” organization. On today’s show we start with an exploration of this new vision for the organization advanced by the US. [ dur: 28mins. ]

So the Board of Peace was initially and ostensibly created to govern Gaza in light of a peace agreement, with the intention of removing Israeli military forces in exchange for a neutral transitional government. This was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 2803, with very specific tasks outline, including aiding in the creation of Palestinian governance, the physical and economic reconstruction of the war-torn territory, the delivery of public services and humanitarian assistance and the return of refugees. So in this segment, we examine the chances that the Board is actually able to accomplish this specifically defined set of goals. [ dur: 30mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.

Politics and Activism, Middle East, Occupied Palestine

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