The Ceasefire Is Just the Beginning

Celebration on the streets of Gaza tells only part of the story. Yes, the guns have stopped firing (at least for now). Yes, families will soon be reuniting with those kidnapped by Israel and Hamas. Yes, there is relief (enormous, palpable relief!) that the immediate violence has paused. But this ceasefire is not peace. It’s barely even a reprieve. Time to log on.

Returning to Nothing

The images coming out of Gaza are devastating. Palestinians are returning to nothing; their homes and neighborhoods have been leveled to rubble that barely resembles what once was. They’re coming back to an apocalyptic wasteland, over 50 million tons of debris, unexploded IEDs littering the ground like landmines, and a humanitarian catastrophe. This is what Netanyahu’s war has wrought. This is what the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) bought with its millions in campaign contributions to eliminate dissenting voices in Washington that call this what it is: a genocide.

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Still Occupied, Still Starving

Here’s what the ceasefire cheerleaders don’t want you to focus on: Gaza remains occupied, as does the West Bank. Israeli forces control nearly 90% of the territory. The siege continues. Palestinians can’t fish their own waters, farm their own land, or rebuild their own communities without permission from the same military that just spent two years systematically destroying everything they had.

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And they’re starving. Not metaphorically starving. People in Gaza are actually, literally dying of hunger. The UN reports that in the months leading up to this ceasefire, humanitarian aid was reaching just 20% of what’s needed. For the aid that did reach Gaza, Israel made it a point to bomb the very distribution sites where families picked up their goods. Israel has turned food into a weapon, and Trump hasn’t said a word about it.

Trump’s Colonial Fantasy

Speaking of Trump, let’s talk about his grotesque vision for Gaza’s future. The leaked “Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation” (GREAT) Trust plan (we shit you not, it’s really called that) reads like a colonial fever dream written by property developers who’ve never met a Palestinian person.

The plan includes:

• The Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone (because nothing says “humanitarian reconstruction” like naming infrastructure after an apartheid nepo baby with a track record of exploding cars, ketamine-fueled chainsaw stunts, and firing people by the thousands to soothe his fragile ego)

• The American Data Safe Haven (your data is “safe”; Palestinian sovereignty, not so much)

• The Gaza Trump Riviera and Islands (I wish I was making this up)

If the intention here was genuine, perhaps a single Palestinian person might have been included in this “reconstruction” plan. Alas, in reality, it is a real estate prospectus for Gaza’s colonization. The document literally values present-day Gaza at “practically $0“ while projecting it could be worth $324 billion within a decade. They’re not seeing people who’ve survived genocide; they’re seeing a “distressed asset to be flipped.”

Trump initially said Palestinians would be relocated and not allowed to return. Then his administration walked it back. Then he said it again. While his messaging changes by the day, our understanding is clear: he doesn’t want statehood for Palestinians. He wants Gaza emptied out for American and Israeli exploitation.

Sign the petition demanding Trump abandon his plan to colonize Gaza!

AIPAC’s Chokehold

AIPAC has spent decades ensuring that any politician who dares support Palestinian rights gets primaried, smeared, and when possible, politically destroyed. They’ve poured millions into defeating progressive candidates like Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush (head’s up, she’s running again!). They’ve created shadow PACs with innocuous names like the “United Democracy Project” to hide their spending. They’ve taken members of Congress on all-expenses-paid trips to Israel, conveniently skipping the West Bank.

AIPAC’s position is unambiguous: recognition of Palestine “would reward terror and undermine peace.“ Never mind that more than 150 countries have recognized Palestine. Never mind that France, the UK, Canada, and Australia all formally recognized Palestinian statehood in 2025. Never mind that this recognition represents the bare minimum of acknowledging Palestinians’ humanity and right to self-determination.

The U.S. stands nearly alone, a permanent member of the UN Security Council wielding its veto to block Palestinian statehood while lecturing the rest of the world about democracy and human rights. And why? Because AIPAC owns enough of Congress to make supporting Palestinian rights politically toxic.

Palestinians Must Lead Reconstruction

Legitimate reconstruction of Gaza requires Palestinians to lead it. Full stop. The GREAT Trust plan explicitly excludes Palestinians from planning their own future. It envisions a decade of U.S. governance; the antithesis of self-determination. It is classic colonization: destroy a people, then swoop in to “save” them on your terms.

@alarabiya_engAerial footage shows #Gaza before and after nearly two years of war. Since October 2023, more than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed, and 70 percent of buildings have been destroyed by the Israeli forces.

What Happens After the Hostages?

Here’s what keeps us up at night: this whole fragile arrangement might collapse the moment the hostage exchanges are complete.

Netanyahu faces political and legal pressures that make him dangerous and unpredictable. He’s staked his political survival on the complete destruction of Hamas and permanent Israeli control of Gaza and the West Bank. Trump, for all his claims of peace-making genius, has shown he’s more interested in photo ops and hotel developments than in actual peace.

Neither Netanyahu nor Trump wants Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu has explicitly ruled it out. Trump’s “plan” treats Palestinians as obstacles to be relocated, not people with inalienable rights to their homeland. So what happens when the hostages are released? When the immediate PR pressure subsides? When Netanyahu faces his next political crisis and needs to rally his far-right base? When Trump gets bored and moves on to his next grievance?

We don’t trust either of them. The pattern is too clear, the incentives too misaligned. Netanyahu has shown repeatedly that he prefers genocide and ethnic cleansing to peace. Trump has shown repeatedly that he’ll abandon commitments the moment they become inconvenient.

This Is Only the Beginning

So yes, celebrate the ceasefire. Celebrate the hostages coming home. Celebrate every single family reunited after unimaginable trauma.

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But do not for one second believe this is over. Gaza is still occupied. Its people are still starving. Its future is still being plotted by men who see it as either a security threat to be neutralized or a business opportunity to be exploited rather than a nation of people deserving dignity, sovereignty, and self-determination.

The work ahead is monumental: ending the occupation, securing statehood, holding war criminals accountable, and ensuring that Palestinians (NOT property developers, military occupiers, colonial administrators!) lead the reconstruction of their own land.

This ceasefire is not the end of the story. It’s barely the end of a chapter. And if we’re not vigilant, if we don’t maintain pressure on Netanyahu, on Trump, on AIPAC, and on every politician who enables this nightmare, then this will simply be a brief intermission before the genocide resumes.

Gaza deserves better than a ceasefire. It deserves freedom.

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