Trump’s Board of Peace a clear departure from international law – critics

By Jonah Kayguan

MANILA —The recently announced international treaty organization Board of Peace has garnered backlash and condemnation from various advocacy groups and world leaders. 

A major part of Trump’s sweeping agenda for Gaza, the charter of the Board was officially announced during a side event at the World Economic Forum in Davos. A signing ceremony was held and attended by initial member states, as well as senior staff of the Trump Administration. “I’ve always said the United Nations has got tremendous potential, [but] has not used it.” Trump said during the side event, marking a clear departure from proper peace frameworks on issues in the Middle East.

While global in scale and general in function, critics note that the Board of Peace is set to make the situation in Gaza worse. The international body will govern the actions of the Gaza Executive Board, as well as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a committee formed as part of Trump’s 20-Point Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict which the White House announced in September 2025.  

As per the Board’s charter, Trump will be the lifetime chairman, with sweeping executive power. States applying for membership to the Board must pay US$1 billion to join. An executive board for Gaza is put in place as part of the peace plan. 

“No country should join anything but UN-led/UN-sanctioned initiatives, grounded in international law and Palestinian self-determination,” posted Special UN rapporteur on Occupied Palestine Francesca Albanese on X (formerly Twitter). “The Board of Peace fails on both. States committed to the rule of law should push for its immediate dismantling, not membership.”

Similarly, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declined to join the board. “The Spanish Government has decided not to participate in the so-called Board of Peace,” said the PM during an emergency EU Summit in Brussels. “This board is outside the framework of the United Nations and has not included the Palestinian authority, the future of Gaza nor the future of the West Bank.”

The Palestinian BDS National Committee, the largest Palestinian civil society coalition leading the global BDS movement, condemned what it called as “thinly veiled attempt to normalize Israel’s ongoing genocide, rehabilitate its genocidal regime, and rescue it from its global isolation.”

Initial members of the board include the absolute monarchies of Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, together with the European countries of Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey, among others. It is increasingly clear that the Board of Peace is a pay-to-join club with most of its initial members consisting of states under authoritarian and far-right rule. Member states, such as Argentina for instance, is ruled by a staunch pro-Israeli technocrat and vocal neo-capitalist. Notably, Israel has expressed intent to accept invitation to the Board, although it has already been closely working with the Trump Administration on the 20-point peace plan since last year.

Members of the Gaza Executive Board include former British PM Tony Blair, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, and billionaires Yakir Gabay and Marc Rowan, the former is an Israeli real estate tycoon, while the latter is the CEO of Apollo Global, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. At the World Economic Forum, Kushner unveiled plans for a “New Gaza,” complete with gleaming buildings and brand new avenues.

Critics said that these initiatives for Gaza eschews Palestinian agency in their own reconstruction, while further legalizing and legitimizing the continued occupation of Palestinian lands. “The plan is to give Israel international backing to sustain a less visible, less intense form of genocide, with ongoing killings as well as systematic denial of adequate food, clean water, housing, health services, etc.,” stated BDS. “Israel’s ultimate goal since the Nakba of 1948, after all, has always been the ethnic cleansing of as many Palestinians as possible. Every state or individual that participates in this ‘Board of Peace’ must therefore be held accountable for complicity in genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation.”

Closer to home, a local Palestine advocacy group criticized the creation of the Board. “The Philippines–Palestine Friendship Association (PPFA) denounced the so-called ‘Board of Peace’ announced by the U.S. President Donald Trump as fundamentally illegitimate and morally bankrupt,” their statement read. 

PFFA president Dr. Delen De La Paz condemns the “blatant hypocrisy” in including Netanyahu, and other Israel-connected actors in the initiative. “While these so-called “peace” bodies meet behind closed doors, the reality on the ground reveals the ceasefire’s hypocrisy: Israel has violated it over 1,300 times since October 10, 2025,” De La Paz said.

“We call on the Philippine government, international bodies, and human rights institutions to speak out, defend Palestinian livelihoods, and hold accountable Trump, Netanyahu, and all complicit states and actors responsible for war crimes and the systematic disenfranchisement of the Palestinian people,” the PFFA statement continued.

Announcement of the Board of Peace also comes just after the US attacked Venezuela and illegally arrested its long-time leader Nicolas Maduro, in what analysts call a ploy for Venezuelan oil reminiscent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush Jr. “Earlier this month, thanks to the unrivaled skill, power, and might of the US Military—we have the most powerful military in the world by far—we’ve captured the outlaw dictator Nicholas Maduro, and the people of Venezuela are very happy about it.” Trump boasted in Davos.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces set fire to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees. 

While a ceasefire between the Israeli forces and Hamas has been reached in 2025, regular attacks persist on the ground in Gaza. Advocacy groups decried the regular disregard for international law and the continued occupation of Palestinian lands. In a January 2026 UNOCHA report, as many as 71,391 have been reported dead in the Gaza Strip, while 81 percent of all structures in the strip either destroyed or damaged since October 7, 2023. The same report states that at least 1.6 million Gazans (77 percent of the population in the strip) are at risk of critical food insecurity, with almost no children meeting the minimum dietary standard. (RTS, RVO)

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