PETALING JAYA: A group of Malaysian political leaders, academics and civil society figures strongly reject Donald Trump's proposed "Board of Peace", part of the US president's peace plan for the Gaza strip, saying that it is self-serving and lacks legitimacy.
"Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace" is not a peace initiative.
"It is a permanent concentration of power designed to legitimise dispossession and commercialise destruction.
"By appointing himself chairman for life and granting himself the authority to select his own successor, Trump has constructed a self-perpetuating body devoid of democratic mandate, legal accountability or international legitimacy," the signatories said in a joint statement on Wednesday (Jan 28).
The group said that the central objective of the Board of Peace is to advance Trump's ambition to transform Gaza into a high-tech luxury destination – the so-called "Gaza Riviera".
"Such framing reduces the reconstruction of a devastated territory to a real-estate transaction," they said, adding that the proposal treats land as an asset to be monetised while excluding Palestinian rights, consent and sovereignty, positioning Palestinians as a disposable labour force while investors stand to own and profit from Gaza's land and infrastructure.
"No political forum has the authority to legitimise land acquisition by force, collective punishment or the permanent exclusion of an occupied population from decisions governing its territory," said the group.
They also criticised the endorsement of the proposal by some members of the United Nations Security Council, calling it a failure of legal responsibility.
They also alleged that participation of certain states appeared to have been secured through economic pressure, including threats of punitive tariffs.
Another concern raised was the absence of Palestinian representation in the conception and announcement of the initiative.
"This exclusion alone renders the initiative invalid under international norms," they said.
The signatories also said the proposal fails to address Gaza's immediate humanitarian crisis, including shortages of food, medicine, clean water and access to education.
"We categorically reject Trump's Board of Peace as illegitimate, unlawful and dangerous.
"We urge the international community to refuse participation in schemes that disguise dispossession as development," they said.
The statement was signed by Malaysian Humanitarian Aid and Relief (Mahar) executive chairman Nurul Izzah Anwar, Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights co-chair Charles Santiago, Third World Network executive director Chee Yoke Ling, Prof Dr Mohd Afandi Salleh from the Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin Faculty of Law & International Relations, Mahar president Jismi Johari, Sahabat Alam Malaysia president Meenakshi Raman and Consumers of Penang president Mohideen Abdul Kader.
