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South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) rejects, in the strongest terms, the Trump Plan for Gaza and the mythical ‘second phase of the ceasefire’. The Trump Plan does little more than provide a distracting smokescreen for ongoing genocide with its newly announced ‘Board of Peace’, accelerating the pace of the entrenchment of a concentration camp in Gaza on the rubble of the what is increasingly being referred to as a Zionist holocaust. This plan, like others before it, is designed to normalise and perpetuate oppression, not to deliver justice or peace. We take our lead from the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and echo its call for a global wave of resistance to US empire, which must begin with ending Israel’s genocide.

We are deeply outraged that the chief engineer of the genocide, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – against whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes –  has accepted an invitation to join the laughably named ‘Board of Peace’. But even before the announcement of his inclusion, the Board represented naked racist imperialism. It is led by an executive stacked with fascistic, hyper racial capitalist, pro-Israel war mongers and includes not a single Palestinian member. Among those appointed to the executive are:

• Ultra right wing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio;
• US Special Envoy and longtime friend of Trump, Steve Witkoff who has no foreign policy experience;
• Trump’s son-in-law, real estate developer Jared Kushner who has championed the total expropriation and settlement of Gaza for the development of ‘waterfront property’;
• Former UK Prime Minister responsible for the massacre of over a million Iraqis, Tony Blair;
• Billionaire investor and funder of pro-Israel propaganda, Marc Rowan;
• World Bank President and former Chief Executive of Mastercard, Ajay Banga and;
• Trump’s national security advisor and loyal aide Robert Gabriel.

Trump has also invited States to buy a permanent seat on the ‘Board of Peace’ for the sum of 1 billion USD. The ‘Board of Peace’ accompanies a technocratic committee to govern Gaza, installed and overseen by the colonial administration.

In the words of Palestinian South African scholar Haidar Eid, the Trump Plan ‘is nothing but the antithesis of the Palestinian right to self-determination for which thousands of men, women, and children have sacrificed their lives’.

Since the announcement of the first ‘ceasefire’ phase on 10 October 2025, Israel has continued its massacres, killing at least 451 Palestinians from Gaza and injuring 1,223.  Between 10 October 2025 and 15 January 2026, Israel violated the ceasefire agreement at least 1,244 times. This is a systematic decimation of international law in service of Israel’s settler-colonial expansion.

In the course of the ‘ceasefire’ Israel has also banned 37 aid organisations, and is continuing its attempt to settle and strangulate Gaza via starvation. This is a direct violation of the International Court of Justice Order in South Africa v. Israel, which, on 28 March 2024 held that, ‘[t]he State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.’

This is not a ceasefire; it is a continuation of genocide by other means. As the BDS movement asserts, U.S. imperial power is the primary sponsor of this genocide. By rebranding genocidal belligerence as ‘diplomacy’, Israel and the U.S. are gaslighting the world, providing Western media an excuse to look away and fostering a false sense that justice is being served.

Our Jewish conscience, our shared humanity, and the lessons of the South African anti-apartheid struggle compel us to action. We heed the BDS call for a global escalation of pressure to dismantle the structures of empire and apartheid. There can be no peace without justice.

We therefore call for:

• Sustained and escalated global grassroots pressure, in support of BDS, to hold Israel accountable and end all complicity in its genocide.
• Immediate, full, and unconditional opening of all crossings for humanitarian aid and commercial goods.
• The opening of the Rafah Crossing to allow the wounded and critically ill to access medical treatment.
• A recommitment to working ferociously towards a free Palestine, from the river to the sea, where all its people live in dignity, justice, and equality.

The struggle for the liberation of Palestine must be led by Palestinians. Only they can lead the way towards peace and justice, rather than having their future dictated to them by a committee of warmongers and imperialists seeking to profit from their suffering. We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the BDS movement, and will continue working towards a free Palestine in our lifetime, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Issued by South African Jews for a Free Palestine