Portside

The “Trump deal” on Gaza, like many similar agreements, does not acknowledge the roots of the Palestinian struggle for liberation. This is not peace - far from it. It is Oslo 2.0.

Illusions were embraced without resistance, even by many liberal-left imperialists who have championed the two-state framework. They imposed no conditions on Israel to curb its impunity or uphold accountability. 

While demands for the demilitarisation of Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, echo loudly, there have been no parallel calls to sanction Israel, halt military aid to Tel Aviv or demilitarise the state. 

The imbalance is stark. We, the native people - those against whom genocide has been committed - are left to bear the heaviest costs.

The political and capitalist elite must be held accountable. The current proposals for Palestinians are not solutions; they are betrayals, violating the principles of justice and international law by imposing conditional self-determination, legitimising Zionism, entrenching colonialism and advancing capitalist interests. 

Such a framework does not serve liberation. It serves power, the Zionist national project and capitalism. We must commit to dismantling these structures in the long term - not only for the sake of Palestinians, but for the integrity of humanity itself.

The deal imposed by US President Donald Trump is a brutal farce that will deepen the divide between the Global North and Global South, the latter of which refuses to accept the destruction of the Palestinian national project. It seems as if the millions of people who protested in the streets have no agency in this matter. 

Trump’s approach to Gaza is best understood as a necropolitical plan - a strategy that governs through death, not diplomacy. By celebrating mass killing, military aid and settler expansion, it reduces Palestinian life to something disposable, stripped of rights and recognition.

Even the so-called ceasefires operate under the same logic: they are necropolitical ceasefires, not meant to protect life, but to manage its destruction, reset the machinery of violence and prepare for the next round of annihilation. This is not peace; it is the choreography of empire.

The Palestinian leadership, civil society and grassroots movements have been systematically ignored. The Trump plan imposes conditional self-determination, while stripping us of our political agency.

Erasing Palestinians 

Palestine is not one of Trump’s or Elon Musk’s companies, nor does it belong to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It is not a sandbox for imperialist experiments or corporate-style governance. 

And yet, that is precisely what is unfolding: real estate developers are circling, and capital is poised to flood in - not just to "rebuild" Gaza, but to rebrand it. 

According to reports, it could take two decades just to clear away the rubble, but plans are already underway to construct new urban identities and reshape narratives to serve capitalist exploitation. This is not reconstruction; it is erasure: a final phase in the Zionist national project to dissolve Palestinians, not only as a people, but as a metaphor of resistance.

Still, I choose hope, because the lives of my people matter more than anything else. I choose an end to the live-streamed genocide.

For the past two years, I have lived in constant panic, haunted by fears of another ethnic cleansing. My people are exhausted. The struggle for survival has been torturous, as we have been repeatedly forced to flee death just to satisfy our basic needs for food and water.

Before the current ceasefire began, Israel intensified its bombardments in some of the last remaining neighbourhoods of Gaza with buildings still standing. But my family, and my people as a whole, will take our tents and live atop the ruins of our homes. 

We will return to our shattered refugee camps and our cities, which have been erased and reduced to rubble. We will return to another conception of home, where new identities will be formed and political demands will rise for full liberation. 

Our ultimate goal remains unchanged: to go back to the homes from which our grandparents were expelled in and around 1948.

As part of the Gaza ceasefire, the Israelis held captive in the enclave have returned home, receiving a hero’s welcome in the state that continues to colonise our lands. Conversely, the released Palestinian captives are returning to destroyed homes after enduring brutal torture. With no support, they will live in tents, mourn and attempt to rebuild.

But Israel failed to “empty Gaza”. It failed to destroy the Palestinian struggle. Now, more than ever, we have enlightened the world about the plight of the Palestinian people - tragically, through one of the bloodiest genocides in modern history.

Global responsibility

It is a rare joy to witness the happiness of my family, friends and neighbours in Gaza - many of whom have lost more than 10kg of body weight and aged prematurely over the past two years of genocide. I pray that the drones and warplanes will finally leave our skies, and that this ceasefire will hold, even in these times of deep mistrust.

It is a joy to see the smiles of relief. But I must remind you - and the world - that Israel has a habit of breaking ceasefires. Once global attention shifts, it resumes its slow genocide. Its political strategy is to exploit the passage of time to expand its colonial project, approving fake ceasefires to distract international solidarity, calm global uprisings, depoliticise trade unions and weaken political organising. 

The goal is to turn eyes away from Gaza and deflect accountability after two years of global mobilisation demanding not just peace, but also justice, liberation and return.

Gaza has paid an unimaginable price - a Holocaust of its own - with tens of thousands of people killed, and scores of thousands more orphaned or suffering catastrophic injuries, including amputations. 

We must ensure that no neocolonial project takes root in Palestine, especially Gaza. We refuse to let our territory return to being a ghetto under Israeli military law.

As Palestinians begin the gradual process of rebuilding, the whole world has a collective responsibility to continue the struggle for justice and self-determination. We must reclaim and decolonise every space for Palestine. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is the bare minimum of what is needed.

We must hold states, political parties and international institutions accountable for failing to protect Palestinians and prevent genocide. These actors have whitewashed Israel’s crimes.

The Palestine solidarity movement must work to enforce accountability and protect Palestinian political rights, including by working to block all investment and trade with Israel - especially the arms trade. The world now has a strong memory of a global betrayal, as the West supported a live-streamed genocide, while continuing to arm and fund the perpetrator. It defied humanity and the entire framework of international law.

As Palestinians who lost so much in Gaza - our families, homes and memories - we are only now being allowed to cry, to grieve, to rest, to breathe. I will do all I can to recover, but the truth is inescapable: we are no longer who we once were.

Palestinians won the world over, and Israel forever destroyed its image. We must build on this shift to escalate our calls for a new global order free of apartheid and colonialism. We will remember who stayed silent as humanity witnessed a live-streamed genocide.

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Majed Abusalama is an award winning writer, political activist and doctoral researcher at Tampere University. Raised in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, he campaigned against the military siege and co-founded Palestine Speaks in Germany. He now chairs Sumud Finland and leads the Coalition of Lawyers for Palestine in Switzerland, advancing accountability and Palestinian political rights in Europe.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

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