Legal Experts Warn of Impending Abuses

Hey everyone, welcome back to Newsgirls. I'm Mabel. And today, while everyone is reporting on all these Supreme Court rulings, I think that there's one story that's really fallen under the radar, and that is that the guardian just got hold of leaked documents showing that Trump's Gaza Board of Peace wants blanket immunity from any arrest or legal proceedings in courts at all. Blanket immunity . And even though this project has kind of seemed like it's been in limbo for a while, there hasn't been that much reporting on it .ort Ringep now shows that construction for this plant has already started and that all the leaders involved will be meeting at a resort in Cyprus next week. So obviously that is a lot. First, I want to break down this blanket immunity because it's pretty terrifying. So like I said, the Guardian got access to a four page draft resolution labeled sensitive but unclassified and found that the Board of Peace is preemptively before it's literally even done anything, giving itself immunity from any crimes or legal troubles that might come up during this reconstruction process . It's giving this protection to the board in totality, but also the office of the High Representative, Palestinian technocrats that are working under the Board of Peace, and what really disturbed me, international military forces and all outside contractors operating in Gaza also get this protection. And that's not all the draft also says that the Board of Peace should be provided public buildings and facilities in Gaza, quote f ree of charge to carry out its mission. Like anything that belongs to Gaza is now belonging to people of this board. You can live here, you can stay here as long as it's, you know, part of this reconstruction effort . And that's kind of wild to me since the concept of land rights is kind of the basis of this whole Israel Palestine issue in the first place. So just having this vague language that's like, oh, any and all property can just belong to this board, I think is extremely problematic . But before we get into all of this new information because there is a lot of new information, I'm going to give you a quick refresher on what this board of peace is. So remember, the idea of this was to create an international body that would oversee Gaza's reconstruction after the war. Trump created this basically out of thin air earlier this year. He is obviously the chair and his allies like son in law, Jared Kushner, Marco Rubios, Steve Witcoff, and all of these other guys are on the board . And what's happening is that these guys are essentially running a project that's relocating two million Palestinians so that they can basically develop the area into a high tech business and tourism hub. Jared Kushner has even described it as an AI smart city . And these plans aren't kept in secret. They're in power points that are being shown to everyone as they're trying to collect funding. It's in decks and contracts like this has been verified. And beyond just these construction plans, it almost seems like this board of peace is trying to kind of be like a pseudo UN. They've said that they want to bring peace around the world to other countries and end other conflicts as well and expand beyond Gaza in the future. And if you're a country that wants to get involved in this, you have to pay the board a billion dollars every three years. So that is basically the fee to enter. And when this was first announced, so many countries were pledging their support, saying that they wanted to be a part of this, probably to get into Trump's good graces. So from that you would think, Oh wow, this board of peace is probably loaded. They probably have billions of dollars and so much money to do what they want to do. But funnily enough, Ren and I reported like a month ago that the Board of Peace Bank was completely empty and had literally zero dollars in their coffers . So yeah, that was problematic and embarrassing Trump was super pissed when all of that reporting came out. And so from everything I've said, you're probably thinking Mabel, this all sounds so hypothetical what you're saying. They keep releasing all of these plans, this immunity thing, but they don't have any money. So why are we worrying about this? Like it probably won't even happen. And I would say, yeah, that's a really good point. Makes a lot of sense except for the fact that, according to Israel Hayoum, which is an Israeli publication is reporting that U. S. military has already begun building a huge base on the Gaza Strip border in coordination with Israel . So this base that's being built now is supposed to serve as a military and civilian headquarters for people that will basically come to the area. And there's already plans to build a huge control tower. People are saying that this is becoming a reality . And five countries have already agreed to send military forces to this area. So that's Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania. And then Bangladesh, Pakistan and Azerbaijan have also expressed interest in sending troops to the area , but they're a little less committed just because of this U. S. Iran war and that's really affecting them. And I want to share another piece of information with you guys that I came across while reading about this because I think it shows that even though the Board of Peace is acting like this neutral third party mediator, it's clear where its alliances truly lie because even though the US and Israel need these countries to supply troops, it's going to enforce these policies , Israel is still picky about which countries get to help. So they've actually refused to allow soldiers from quote hostile countries like Pakistan and Turkey to arrive in the area . And I just thought that was interesting because again, the Board of Peace is not supposed to be pro Israel. It's supposed to be UN adjacent. But obviously, Israel is calling the shots. We know that Netanyahu is very, very close with Trump. And I just thought that this small detail shows how ingrained Israel is in this entire board of peace process. And I thought that was interesting . But yeah, after reading about this under reported construction, that's kind of when I realized that this isn't just a crazy proposal sitting on someone's desk , they're actually starting to build , which is what makes this immunity clause so much scarier and all the more real. And I don't even know how to begin dissecting how problematic this clause is, but as we all know, Gaza is one of the most troubled war torn regions in the entire world. So many massive atrocities have been committed there. And now this controversial board that Trump just made up a couple months ago is taking over a region that he has no business being in. And not only that, but he's converting this region into a Middle Eastern Marlago and is saying, Oh , our people in charge, our military, and anyone related to this project won't be subject to any legal trouble no matter what they do. And according to this draft, Trump himself , as the board's chair has the ultimate power to enforce this legal immunity. So Trump has all the power. I also think it's pretty weird that these plans are moving forward, even though the ceasefire that the Trump administration put together last fall shaky at best. Hamas still hasn't given up its weapons, which was a prerequisite for moving into phase two, which is the reconstruction phase of this ceasefire. Israeli troops are still in the region. They've actually expanded their presence from fifty percent to sixty percent . And on top of that, Israeli forces have killed a thousand Palestinians in Gaza since this peace deal has started. I mean, they've even killed some people this past wee kend. So how is that a working ceasefire? I don't know, but it does seem like this tricky fake ceasefire is going to be the starting point for this board of peace that like I said, we already know skews favorably towards Israeli interest s. Moving on to what experts think because of all of these conflicts of interest and dangerous ambiguity, experts and lawyers in international humanitarian law are starting to speak out and warn the world. They're saying that the situation would actually make it imposs ible for citizens to seek out any kind of accountability. For example, what if contractors or military caused property damage or injuries or kill someone in this construction or in a skirmish . This board is basically creating its own legal system and pretty much absolving itself from any incident that could come up. And as inappropriate and insane as this all sounds, it is really easy to understand why Trump and his board decided to write this draft up , you just have to look at what Trump has been doing here in the U. S. Trump has fought for more executive control than any president in U. S. history, and he has successfully protected himself and so many of his own officials from legal action. We also see him constantly battling with courts in the U. S. who are trying to stop or kind of slow down his plans and we see that really bother him and get under his skin. And I think now he's anticipating that all of these issues would kind of come up when it comes to redeveloping Gaza . And he's like, well , here's a way around this before a legal framework is created. This idea is so new, there's no infrastructure around it. Before anything is created, let's just make it ourselves and put ourselves in charge of this. Now, it's important to mention that the Board of Peace disputes a lot of this reporting. In a statement to the Guardian, officials said, quote, There is no operative resolution or immunity framework like the one described. So even though the Guardian says that they have this draft resolution, that they've read all of these things, the Board of Peace is denying all of this . And I don't know, I mean, to be fair , I know that international organizations and peacekeeping missions do receive legal protections to some extent. And it's basically so that officials have authority to operate across different jurisdictions and countries and territories. They need that protection to get their jobs done. But after seeing this draft, legal experts have told the Guardian that this proposal goes so much further than anything that they've seen or could expect because of how it also covers contractors and military personnel from being in trouble at all. As for what is happening next, members of the Board of Peace are expected to meet at a resort in Cyprus next week to discuss this project and next step. So we'll definitely get a lot more details about all of this then and then the following weeks . But I think to kind of wrap, if history has taught us anything, I think we can just look at recent U. S. led reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan to be warned of how to handle this and how this is wrong. I mean, reconstruction there was plagued with civilian deaths and so many abuses by American contractors. There's so many stories of corruption that have come out of there. And this whole situation would be so much worse because the board is already saying that there's going to be no external oversight at all. A quote from a human rights lawyer said quote Far from signaling an end to genocide, apartheid and occupation, this document suggests entrenching some of its ugliest signature charac teristics. This risks not only complicity but direct perpetration of grave abuses. And what's crazy is that it seems like in this new world order that we're seeing emerge, powerful figures can kind of just take power for themselves whenever they want. This board was made up of nowhere to basically take over and take control of an entire region . And somehow it's become a reality out of just being something in Trump's mind. The UN has even authorized them to oversee everything until december twenty twenty seven. And so what is so concerning to me about all of this is that we're seeing this pattern of power being taken despite courts, despite law, despite international organizations and despite what we the people want . And I think now we're really seeing that these forces will go to any lengths to preserve and expand that power. Thanks everyone for tuning in to another episode of News Girls. Make sure to like this video, subscribe to our YouTube and make sure to follow us on Instagram, TikTok , Substack. We come out with a twice week newsletter and we come out with a lot of different content on those platforms. And like I always mention,ed this is just oper ated by me and Ren. The two of us do all of the research, producing, editing, all of it, so any and all support really goes a long way to make sure that we can keep getting you guys credible information and running as an independent news organization. And yeah, thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys soon. Bye