Trump’s Board of Peace Is Trying to Grant Itself Legal Immunity and the Power to Steal Palestinian Land

Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has a modest ask before it gets to work in Gaza: total legal immunity for itself and its agents, plus the power to seize property, with almost no oversight attached. A draft resolution shows the group—which currently enjoys the blessing of the United Nations—wants to answer to no one but itself.

The Guardian reports:

The four-page resolution, labeled “sensitive but unclassified,” extends broad protections to every member of the Board of Peace and its administrative affiliate, the office of the high representative (OHR), as well as to the Palestinian technocrats, international military forces and nonresident contractors lined up to perform work in Gaza. It defines legal processes from which they would have immunity as “any arrest, detention or legal proceedings in the courts or other entities in Gaza.” ...

Six lawyers specialising in US contracting law and international armed conflict reviewed the draft resolution for the Guardian. If the resolution goes into force, they said, it is unclear how Board of Peace officials, soldiers and contractors would be held accountable if there are shootings or accidents that affect Gaza residents, or even how the group might resolve routine disputes over business or land use there. ...

The final section of the Board of Peace’s draft resolution, entitled “Premises of the Board of Peace, OHR, and ISF,” says that the group “shall be provided, free of charge, public premises and facilities needed for the accomplishment of the missions in Gaza.” Legal experts said that this singular phrase could open the door to illegal confiscation of Palestinian property.

Lest we forget, the Board of Peace’s composition and actions are, by design, almost entirely within the control of Donald Trump—personally, not just in his current capacity as POTUS—until and unless he decides to give it up. Now he wants to give the people he controls legal immunity. Surely only for good reasons!

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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