Jeremy Corbyn has denounced Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” plan for Israel and Palestine, stating that the proposals are “a threat to peace in the Middle East.”
Writing on Twitter, the Labour Party leader was strong in his condemnation, stating that the suggested “peace” deal was “not a peace plan” at all and was instead “a plan to lock in illegal Israeli colonisation and deny Palestinian rights.”
Corbyn called on Boris Johnson’s Conservative government to “oppose this travesty and press for a real peace deal and a genuine two-state solution.”
However, despite widespread opposition both in Palestine and across the Middle East, the UK government has pledged its support for a plan, with Johnson himself pledging to do ‘whatever we can do to help’.
The sycophancy toward Trump from Mini-Me Johnson was not unexpected as the UK looks for its post-Brexit trade deal from the Americans, the British government’s willingness to run roughshod over international law being now well established.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said that the British government “welcome” the “serious proposal”.
The United Nations meanwhile has roundly rejected the “deal” as an imposition of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision of a two-state solution based on principles of apartheid and division, the terms of the “agreement” contradictory to UN guidelines and a breach of international law.
Announced on Tuesday, the “deal of the century” is yet another massive concession to Israel from Donald Trump following the recognition of Israel’s illegal occupation of the Golan Heights and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem.
Major points within the deal include:
- Jerusalem will be established as Israel’s “undivided” capital, undermining Palestinians’ aim to recognize East Jerusalem as their capital;
- the recognition of the majority of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine;
- the recognition of the Jordan Valley, which makes up a third of the occupied West Bank, as part of Israel; and
- the refusal by Israel to grant Palestinians the “right to return” to their homes lost in the Six-Day War and other conflicts.
The absurdist proposals have sparked protests across Palestine, every Palestinian leader rejecting the terms as completely unacceptable. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he only had “a thousand no’s,” for the deal and pointed out that the suggestion was completely one-sided in favour of Israel.
Demonstrators took to the streets of Ramallah on Tuesday to protest the ‘peace plan’, chanting slogans and burning pictures of Trump and Netanyahu.
“It is the expression of a collective stance and represents all the people of Palestine inside and outside the country, who today express their absolute and categorical rejection of this disastrous deal of the century”
Kaddoura Fares, the president of the Palestinian Prisoners Association.
There were also rallies in the Jordan Valley and Bethlehem on Wednesday, protestors gathering at Israeli checkpoints and waving Palestinian flags, Israeli occupation forces clashing with protestors who responded by throwing stones at the troops.
Firing tear gas and charging protesters in response, the Israelis bundled at least one protester into a vehicle, while another was stopped on a street corner.
“Our message is that we are against the Israeli plan, supported by the United States of America, to annex the Jordan Valley. [We are against] the pressure [put on] the citizens to leave the lands and against the confiscation of the lands from the farmers and the herdsmen.”
Abdullah Abu Rahma, a member of the Popular Committee Against Wall and Settlements
The Trump and Netanyahu plan has also faced stiff opposition from leading U.S. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and supporters including Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota who called the deal “shameful and disingenuous”.
Sanders meanwhile called the “peace” plan “unacceptable” and called for the end of the Israeli occupation’ of Palestine.
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