Palestinians will never accept this one-sided ‘deal of the century’

When Donald Trump, with his usual hyperbole, called his plan for the Middle East the “deal of the century”, many wondered whether he was talking about a peace deal, or one that merely played well for himself and the Israeli prime minister.

Shunned by the Palestinian leadership who rejected all the leaked proposals, it was feared the 80-page plan would do nothing to bring the two sides closer together.

Yesterday’s announcement is widely viewed as a great deal for the Israeli leader, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, a convenient distraction on the very day he was finally indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and corruption. To fight the accusations as he prepares for another election, he has reverted to Trump mode, calling the claims against him “fake news”.

But he has always found a friend in the current US president, who may have just handed him, if you’ll excuse the pun, his trump card.

Since his election, the US president has failed to endorse the traditional two-state solution, has recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and has said the US no longer views Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as inconsistent with international law.

His newly unveiled plan for the Middle East continues in that vein. Trump has certainly put Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority, on the back foot.

But it’s hard not to detect a sleight of hand because of contradictions it contains and the detail that is left out.

On a hotly disputed issue, Trump promises that Jerusalem will be Israel’s “undivided capital” while also saying the Palestinians will have one in the east of the city. But it will not be the East Jerusalem that they have always laid claim to, merely land outside the city walls.

The Palestinians have always pushed for an independent state of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, along borders that existed between 1949-1967. But under the Trump announcement, no Israelis will be uprooted from their homes, so all those Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories will remain just as they are.

Abbas’s immediate rejection of the plan was hardly a surprise, as it imposes what is seen as permanent Israeli rule over the West Bank.

A two-state solution is no good if one side doesn’t want to live where they’re put – even if it is double the size of what they have now.