By Iqbal Jassat
While US president Donald Trump is caught up in futile efforts to revive his stillborn project known as the Abraham Accords, his failure to look beyond the pressing issue of Palestinian rights to freedom and justice, has yet again exposed his pro-Israel bias.
Pushing Saudi Arabia to “normalise” ties with the settler colonial regime by it trading off with a promise to grant the kingdom a nuclear deal, is part of Trump’s goal to embellish his legacy as Israel’s most faithful American president.
His timing however is in conflict with the Elders, a group of respected former world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, who have issued one of their strongest statements yet after visiting Israel, the occupied West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.
Indeed their conclusion is unequivocal. The conditions for a viable Palestinian state are being systematically dismantled through occupation, settlement expansion, forced displacement and the destruction of Gaza’s social and economic fabric.
Though they are silent on the fact that Trump’s policies have allowed illegal landgrabs resulting in the growth of Jewish settlements across Palestine, the Elders argue that the international community’s failure to act has allowed policies that threaten to erase Palestine politically, geographically and culturally, while undermining any remaining prospects for a just and lasting peace.
Their call extends beyond expressions of concern. They urge concrete international measures, including sanctions against illegal settlements and accountability under international law.
As governments continue to delay meaningful action, The Elders warn that history is approaching a point of no return.
The delegation concludes that the Israeli government, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, is pursuing policies that would erase Palestine physically, politically, economically and culturally.
It says Gaza is being compressed into an increasingly smaller area under severe humanitarian conditions, while settlement expansion and de facto annexation continue across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The statement accuses Israel of undermining Palestinian refugee rights through attacks on UNRWA and says inflammatory rhetoric by senior ministers has created conditions that enable ethnic cleansing.
The group says Palestinians they met described lives marked by occupation, loss of dignity and systemic oppression, calling it a collective denial of humanity.
They warn that growing settler violence and Israel’s withholding of Palestinian tax revenues are further weakening the Palestinian Authority and worsening living conditions in the occupied territories.
In addition, the Elders call on the European Union to move beyond statements of concern by banning trade with Israeli settlements and considering sanctions, including suspending the trade pillar of the EU Israel Association Agreement.
They also urge the UN Security Council to act in accordance with international law.
They praise Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations documenting abuses, including the treatment of Palestinian detainees and settler violence.
The statement concludes with an urgent warning that unless governments act now, Palestine risks disappearing as a viable state, ending with the appeal: “Palestine must not disappear.”
Iqbal Jassat
Executive Member
Media Review Network
Johannesburg
South Africa