THE handshake between the US president Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on September 30 was more than a routine diplomatic photo op. It was a grim ratification of a final solution for the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu鈥檚 meeting with Trump, his fourth since Trump re-assumed office, was billed as a discussion on 鈥榣asting security and regional integration.鈥� The reality, buried within a 20-point document, was far more sinister. Netanyahu arrived with a 20-point plan for Gaza, a blueprint that can only be described as a systematic programme for the clearance of Palestinians from their land. With Trump鈥檚 swift and unquestioning endorsement, this plan was not negotiated but imposed, marking a catastrophic departure from diplomacy and a chilling acceleration of a long-standing project of displacement.
听
鈥楧ay after鈥� to 鈥榝inal chapter鈥�
SINCE the war on Gaza in October 2023, Netanyahu鈥檚 strategy has been consistent: the avoidance of any negotiated end that would leave Hamas or any viable Palestinian political entity standing. This was not merely a security posture but a strategic imperative for a leader whose political survival depends on a perpetual state of conflict and whose ideological vision rejects Palestinian sovereignty. The bombing of the first peace plan and the unprecedented airstrikes on Qatar, a key mediator, to assassinate Hamas leaders were not tactical escalations but strategic demolitions. The purpose was to annihilate the very possibility of negotiation, creating a vacuum into which a unilateral Israeli diktat could be imposed through the United States.
The 20-point plan is that diktat. Its overarching objective is a multi-pronged strategy designed to make life in Gaza untenable, thereby compelling a mass displacement. The plan is a master class in creating humanitarian and political pretexts for ethnic cleansing. It can be broadly understood through several key mechanisms.
Strategy of starvation and siege:听The plan formally codifies the blockade, cutting off aid until a list of impossible security conditions are met. It mandates the complete demilitarisation of Gaza as a condition for the restoration of water and electricity, a demand that is both circular and unachievable. By tying basic human survival to the total surrender of an already devastated and fragmented resistance, the plan ensures a perpetual state of humanitarian crisis.
Militarisation of 鈥榮ecurity鈥�:听Several points establish a permanent Israeli military cordon inside a demilitarised Gaza, with full control over borders, airspace and territorial waters. This is not a temporary security measure but the formalisation of an occupation, effectively turning Gaza into a real open-air prison with the guards stationed inside. Any Palestinian protest or resistance to this is then framed as an act of terrorism, justifying further lethal retaliation and 鈥榗learing鈥� of areas.
Pretext of 鈥榯emporary evacuation鈥�:听One of the most insidious points involves the declaration of large swathes of Gaza, particularly the north, as 鈥榗losed military zones鈥� due to alleged, extensive tunnel networks. Gazans are to be 鈥榯emporarily relocated鈥� to overcrowded, arid zones in the south, restricted by narrow and controlled 鈥榟umanitarian corridor鈥� with no guaranteed right of return. History, from the Nakba of 1948 to the present, has showed that such 鈥榯emporary鈥� displacement in the Israeli context is always permanent.
Destruction of Palestinian sovereignty:听The plan explicitly forbids the role of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and outlaws any UN agency, particularly United Nations Relief and Works Agency for听Palestine Refugees, which it designates as a 鈥榟ostile entity.鈥� By dismantling the primary institutions of governance, aid and civil registration, the plan destroys the very fabric of Palestinian society and any administrative capacity for self-rule. It creates a stateless, rightless population, perfect for displacement.
Illusion of puppet administration:听To provide a veneer of legitimacy, the plan proposes the governance of Gaza by 鈥榣ocal clans鈥� hand-picked and funded by Israel. A further ominous sign is the proposed inclusion of figures like Tony Blair, whose legacy is irrevocably stained by the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq and its catastrophic humanitarian consequences, to oversee reconstruction. This cynical appointment of a discredited western architect of destruction to manage Gaza鈥檚 rubble is a classic colonial tactic, aiming to lend a grotesque air of international legitimacy to the ensuing displacement while ensuring dependent, unaccountable leadership that will acquiesce to Israeli demands, including the management of the population鈥檚 鈥榦rderly鈥� departure Gaza.
Trump鈥檚 endorsement of the plan without consultation with Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, or regional partners is a flagrant violation of international law and diplomatic norms. It signifies a return to the 鈥榤aximum pressure鈥� doctrine where American power is not used as a mediator but as a cudgel to enforce the will of its ally, Israel. For Trump, the plan represents a 鈥榙eal鈥� that his predecessor could not make, a brutal, simplistic 鈥榮olution鈥� that plays to his base鈥檚 desire for strongman politics and a disengagement from complex multilateralism. By imposing the plan, he has made the United States not a peace broker, but a direct accomplice in what many legal scholars are now calling a campaign of atrocity crimes, including apartheid and forcible transfer.
The muted response from key Arab capitals, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Amman, is a tragic betrayal but not an unexpected one. For the rulers of these nations, the Netanyahu-Trump axis presents a devil鈥檚 bargain. Their primary concerns are the containment of Iran, the suppression of political Islam (of which Hamas is a branch), and the pursuit of economic and security ties with the United States. A Palestinian state has long since fallen down their list of priorities. Their silent support, or at best their quiet, ineffectual diplomacy, grants Netanyahu the regional cover that he needs. These modern-day pharaohs and emirs, in their complete and cowardly submission to American and Israeli diktats, have sacrificed the Palestinian cause at the altar of their own political preservation, becoming willing accomplices to injustice. They may issue perfunctory statements of condemnation, but their actions or lack there of, signal a grim acceptance of a new status quo, where Palestinian lives are the currency for regional stability as they define it.
The 鈥�20-Point Gaza clearance plan鈥� is more than a policy document. It is a declaration of intent for a final territorial and demographic solution. It moves the conflict from a struggle over land and statehood to a stark project of population removal. The combination of state sponsored military terror, engineered famine and the destruction of civil society is a formula for ethnic cleansing in the 21st century.
The endorsement by the United States and the tacit acceptance by regional powers have created a perfect storm, leaving the Palestinian people in Gaza more vulnerable than at any point since 1948. The international community now stands at a precipice. To treat this plan as a legitimate political initiative is to be complicit in its horrors. The 20-point plan is not a path to peace. It is a blueprint for a crime and its implementation must be met not with silence but with the full force of moral, legal and political resistance globally before Palestinians are erased from their land.
听
Mohammad Abdur Razzak ([email protected]), a retired commodore of the Bangladesh navy, is a security analyst.
