Decades of oblivion and Trump’s Board of Peace

by Ramona Wadi

Displaced Palestinians, deprived of basic necessities, struggle to maintain their daily lives amid the rubble left behind by Israeli attacks as they battle with cold weather conditions in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza on January 18, 2026. [Saeed M. M. T. Jaras – Anadolu Agency]

In November 2025, the UN Security Council endorsed Resolution 2803 which completely marginalised the UN while handing over the rebuilding of Gaza to the US. Yet one issue was made clear from the start, as China had stated: “Palestine is barely visible in the draft.” Russia also added its own warning, although tied to the two-state paradigm which is not reflected in the resolution’s text: “The main thing is that this document shouldn’t become a fig leaf for unbridled experiments conducted by the United States and Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”  

As US President Donald Trump continues to invite world leaders to join his Board of Peace, the earlier warnings strike clear although the rhetoric is shifting even from countries initially opposed to the US plan for Gaza, such as Russia. Pragmatism does not define Trump’s plan, for example. It only exploits a gap which the UN left unattended for decades. Without a plan to end Israeli colonisation, it is now a question of what power holds the most leverage. Failing to stop colonialism, as the UN did, guaranteed Israel’s expansion but also a power vacuum within the international order that the US under Trump decided to exploit. Gaza is now exploited for a new imperialist initiative that requires countries to pay $1 billion for a membership that exceeds three years.  

The Board of Peace Charter does not mention Gaza. Instead it focuses on building an international organisation “that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

While several countries have acknowledged receiving an invitation but refused to join the Board of Peace as it sidelines the UN, the focus on diplomacy is once again shifting attention from Gaza. And despite the refusals or hesitation to join Trump’s initiative, the fact remains that it was endorsed at the UNSC, which increases complicity in the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

Trump’s diversion from the genocide in Gaza is not a unique stance. The UN has decades of experience around managing Palestine and Palestinians to colonialism’s whims and the international community’s humanitarian paradigm. During Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the UN’s focus on humanitarian aid shifted attention away from genocide. When the UN finally deemed it pertinent to acknowledge genocide in Gaza, it did so just weeks before the ceasefire was announced. The ceasefire shifted attention back to the humanitarian paradigm. What was forgotten was genocide. 

Trump’s Board of Peace signals a bigger form of oblivion. The objectives of Phase 1 were largely unaccomplished. But the focus is now on the Board of Peace with no accountability for the first phase which moderated genocide into manageable violations. While Palestinians continue to suffer the effects of Israel’s genocide, humanitarian deprivation and encroachment on Gaza’s territory, each invitation Trump sends out, and the $1 billion membership fee, are given more prominence than the fact that the Board itself is detracting from the attention that Gaza requires. While world leaders battle out their diplomacy over the Board of Peace, who is looking at Israel’s genocide and colonial expansion in Gaza?