JONATHAN WHITTALL, whittall@
Available for a limited number of interviews, Whittall is executive director of the Keys Initiative. He just wrote the piece “Exclusive: Leaked ‘Board of Peace’ Resolution Outlines U.S.-Led Plan to Rule Over Gaza” for Drop Site News. He was also just on a livestream with the outlet, which is now available on UpScrolled, a new platform for mobile devices which has surged to be the number two free iPhone app in the U.S.
He writes: “The so-called Board of Peace that President Donald Trump officially launched in Davos, Switzerland last week is developing sweeping plans for a U.S.-backed administration to rule Gaza, according to a draft of the Board’s resolution. …
“The resolution, which is the first of its kind from the Board of Peace, details the structure of a U.S.-backed governing authority that would assume full legislative, executive, and judicial control over Gaza, including ’emergency powers.’ …
“The draft resolution formalizes a hierarchical structure for the Board of Peace, with Trump as the chairperson and an executive board that has ‘the same authority, powers, and ability to make all delegations necessary and appropriate to carry out the Comprehensive Plan as the Board of Peace.’ The Executive Board has the power to ‘enact new law, or modify or repeal prior’ civil and criminal laws in Gaza.
“The resolution lists the nine members of the executive board: seven that were already announced by the White House on January 16, plus two more who have not been publicly named. The previously announced members are: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, businessman Mark Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Deputy National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel. The two new names revealed in the document are Trump’s chief of staff Susan Wiles and Martin Edelman, a real estate attorney and a special advisor to the government of the United Arab Emirates. …
“No Palestinians were included on the Board of Peace, though Trump did give a spot to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains under war crimes indictment and is subject to an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. The board, which critics say is an attempt to circumvent any meaningful U.N. oversight or even to position itself as a privatized alternative to the world body, envisions operating in an environment where it answers exclusively to Trump.”
Whittall is formerly a senior official with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Palestine and with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.
See prior IPA news releases on the so-called Board of Peace.