* General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative Movement

No need to be an expert in history to realize that the roadmap presented by US President Donald Trump “as the deal of the century”, is very similar to that of the Bantustans during the apartheid regime in South Africa, with one difference, which is that the Palestinian ghettos are smaller and might be better known as “ghetto-stans”.

 

The publication of this map only contributes to increasing the provocation of the Palestinians, who simply perceive the “Deal of the Century” as an Israeli project, predominantly written by Netanyahu and wrapped in an American cover.

 

The published details clearly confirms the concerns of the Palestinian people, that the Trump administration is not only aligned with Israel, but also allied with the most racist right-wing and extremist trends in the Israeli political structure.

 

The Palestinians only see in the Trump administration actions and in the provisions of the Deal of the Century, a crude attempt to liquidate their national rights, including support for annexing East Jerusalem to Israel and its recognition as the unified capital of the occupying state; an attempt to liquidate the rights of Palestinian refugees, along with the phasing UNRWA, and seek to replace the idea an independent, sovereign state, with ghettos and dismantled ghettos, in no fewer than 224 islands divided into settlements, the wall, with hundreds of military checkpoints, and only connected by tunnels and bridges that the Israeli army can control as it pleases.

 

Palestinians conceive the Trump deal as an attempt to revoke international law and legitimacy, international resolutions, including dozens of resolutions issued by the United Nations Security Council, hundreds of decisions issued by the United Nations General Assembly, in addition to the decisions of the International Court of Justice, which stipulates the illegality of settlements and unlawfulness of annexing occupied lands, and the illegitimacy of the ongoing occupation of their land.

 

Thus, the Trump deal is nothing but an American attempt to legalize unlawful Israeli acts aimed at destroying the possibility of a free and independent Palestinian state, and to replace it with unsovereign ghettos, with no control over its borders, security, water, roads, natural resources, nor airspace.

 

In fact, the Palestinians do not see a difference between the proposed ghettos as a state, and the Israeli prisons where hundreds of thousands of their militants entered, as they are ultimately isolated, secured and controlled militarily, economically, and socially by the Israeli army.

 

Trump spoke about Israeli security, but he omitted to mention even once the security of the Palestinians; by that, I do not only refer to the political security affected by the longest occupation in modern history, but also to social, economic, and life security.

 

The Israelis are always irritated whenever we remind them that what they established in Palestine is an apartheid regime. Nevertheless, they are unable to provide a different description, to justify the reality that Israel seizes 85% of the West Bank water, and allows the Palestinians to consume 50 cubic meters annually, while the illegal settler is allowed to consume 2400 Cubic meters annually. Considering Gaza water, 95% of it have become salty or polluted and not suitable for human usage due to the Israeli blockade and exploitation.

 

Palestinians are obliged to pay the price of their goods according to the Israeli market prices because of the customs and taxation imposed on them by Israel, knowing that the Israeli national income is twenty times more than its Palestinian counterpart.

 

On Trump’s map, racist segregation methods are established in the West Bank, which is monopolized by the Israelis, and prohibited to the Palestinians, and thus becomes part of the Israeli apartheid system.

 

The Palestinians only perceive in Trump’s project a destruction of the two-state solution, which the international community pressed the Palestinians to accept, in favor of creating an apartheid regime and a hateful racial discrimination.

 

Ghettostans – or Bantustans – and apartheid are not a solution, and if the possibility of a free, sovereign and independent Palestinian state is eradicated, the Palestinians will have no choice but to struggle for a single, democratic State in which all have equal rights and duties over all of historic Palestine from the river to the sea.

 

Trump and Netanyahu have done great harm through the “deal” project not only to the Palestinians, but also to the Israelis, who can only be proud of creating the ugliest apartheid regime in the 21st century, and they will not be able to prevent the Palestinians from overthrowing it in all of historic Palestine.