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PALESTINIANS OFFER A MUCH CLEARER PATH TO PEACE  
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Dahlia Scheindlin
November 26, 2025
Haaretz
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_ A 51-page document by a group of Palestinian scholars and policy
thinkers lays out a visionary path to Middle East peace that is much
clearer than the UN resolution or Trump's 20-point plan _

A Palestinian refugee holds a baby during the Gaza Children's Film
Festival, organized by the Masharawi Film Fund, in Al-Shatee refugee
camp, west of Gaza City, on Sunday, Omar Al-Qattaa /AFP

 

In just over one week since the United Nations Security Council passed
a resolution affirming U.S. President Trump's 20-point cease-fire plan
and an international stabilization force for Gaza, the worst fears of
many Palestinians seem vindicated.

In response to what it claims are Hamas violations, Israel has
escalated airstrikes against Gaza daily, killing hundreds
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– including two children per day
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cease-fire went into effect. Hamas has released all the living hostage
and most of the bodies of those killed on October 7. Yet the IDF
remains entrenched and holds over half of Gaza, it allows or restricts
aid
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at will, and the international force is nowhere to be seen.

Some analysts were quick to protest the flaws and holes of the UN
Security Council resolution. Yet what is the alternative? The
preferred Palestinian way forward wasn't immediately obvious – but
it exists.

There are clear caveats to any answer. Hamas and Fatah are both widely
reviled by Palestinians, and can hardly be seen to represent the
people. Yet no one Palestinian can speak for a range of perspectives
within civil society.

But Palestinian voices display significant agreement on some essential
principles for a Palestinian cease-fire, peace and recovery plan.
These principles respond to the current U.S.-led process but also
reflect long-standing Palestinian positions and demands that they have
expressed for years.

Perhaps the most comprehensive, pragmatic, visionary plan for a path
forward is the Palestinian Armistice Plan
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released earlier this year. Co-authored by a group of Palestinian
scholars and policy thinkers and sponsored by the Cambridge Initiative
on Peace Settlements, this 51-page document is packed with details
about how the authors propose that Gaza should move from war to
cease-fire, to international intervention, to peace.

BOTH LOGICAL AND OBVIOUS

Responding to the recent Security Council resolution, the basic
principles for a better immediate cease-fire plan range from the
logical to the obvious. First, Palestinian critics repeatedly point
out that any internationally brokered plan should bring Palestinians
into the process
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President Trump and his team are in regular dialogue with the Israeli
leadership, while Qatar has effectively come to represent Hamas in
negotiations, though Hamas barely represent Palestinians.

Jamal Nusseibeh [[link removed]], a
Palestinian-American co-author of the Armistice Plan, who is also a
scholar, lawyer and investor, explained to Haaretz that formally, the
Palestine Liberation Organization is still the sole recognized
representative of the State of Palestine and should be at the table.

Second, while Palestinian representatives have requested international
intervention for years, they repeatedly insist
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that any such effort must rest on international law. The current plan
dismisses international law in several ways: It avoids referring to
earlier UN resolutions
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– apparently unprecedented
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for the Security Council.

Despite UN recognition as a non-member observer state and nearly 160
individual state recognitions, the current resolution aspires to
faraway, conditional statehood, instead of treating Palestine as a
sovereign state now. That renders recent recognitions by France and
the U.K., two permanent Security Council members, flimsy.

International law also requires adhering to the International Court of
Justice advisory opinion in July 2024
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which ruled that the entire occupation of Palestinian territories is
illegal and must end. That would mean insisting that Israel withdraw
from sovereign Palestinian territory, as the international force moves
in for the transition to Palestinian governance. An international
force, from the Palestinian perspective, is welcome under those terms
– a whole chapter in the Palestinian Armistice plan is devoted to
the issue.

Instead, many fear that the current International Stabilization Force
(ISF) envisioned by the UN resolution is destined or even designed to
freeze the status quo. Nusseibeh noted that Palestinians therefore see
it as "legalization of the occupation," or "colonial oversight"
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as per an article by Yara Hawari, co-director of Al-Shabaka, a
Palestinian policy hub. No Palestinian I spoke to gave credence to the
resolution's vague mention of Palestinian "technocratic, apolitical
committee," for Gaza, the eventual return of the PA, or the suggested,
futuristic "statehood."

A third principle, then, overlaps with the bottom line for successful
international interventions
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world over: a final status political end point. Politically, says
Nusseibeh, a Palestinian plan for international intervention needs to
treat Palestine as a state.

There are important implications to naming the endgame of Palestinian
sovereignty as the aim of the ISF. For example, this would imply a
mandate over Gaza and the West Bank too, where Palestinians need
protection from the latest wave of Jewish terror attacks
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The Palestinian Armistice plan explains: "To support the transition to
Palestinian self-determination, the peacekeeping force's mandate
should cover the entire OPT, allowing the troops to maintain security
and act as a buffer between Israelis and Palestinians. Its mandate
should be to not only monitor violations, but also enforce the peace;
its troops should therefore replace all Israeli forces within the
OPT." More succinctly, Nusseibeh recently wrote
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that the region needs "a peace force for Palestine, not a
stabilization force for Gaza."

Moreover, he views this move towards statehood with physical
international protection as the main incentive for Hamas to disarm –
since resistance will become unnecessary absent occupation – and
join the PLO. Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Doha-based Middle East
Council on Global Affairs, concurs. "They would agree to disarm and
disband as part of that political process that's in place for ending
the occupation," he told Haaretz.

That means accepting the framework of two states. Hamas has indicated
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openness to the PLO-integration
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path more than once
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– many times more than Hamas has ever agreed to disarmament in the
present political vacuum.

A horizon for Hamas' disarmament, in turn, could prompt the much
anticipated, as yet uncommitted countries such as Indonesia, Egypt,
Azerbaijan or any others, to participate in the ISF. As it is, their
participation is already "tied to a political horizon and [without
that] they're not going to get trapped in Gaza doing Israel's dirty
work," said Rahman.

These are not small considerations; the Palestinian pathway would
facilitate what Trump claims he wants to do.

Finally, some Palestinians are incensed that the international process
does not include a mechanism for Israeli accountability. A network of
Palestinian [[link removed]] civil society
organizations in Palestine included an accountability mechanism within
its list of demands of the international community, in response to the
Security Council: "accountability for Israel's historic and ongoing
mass atrocity crimes, including support for the establishment of an
international, impartial and independent mechanism to investigate
crimes committed against the Palestinian people."

When asked about Hamas' crimes against Israelis, Rahman responded that
if the process for accountability is based on international law, then
both parties should be held accountable, including Hamas – but he
pointed out that most of the planners of October 7 are already dead.
Nusseibeh felt that it would be "helpful if there were some kind of
reference, at least, to what most people by now are calling a
genocide."

HOPE MATTERS

This list of problems with Trump's plan is not exhaustive, but neither
are the solutions that arise from Palestinians themselves. Some
additional initiatives deal with the most immediate issues, such as
the group of Gazan municipalities [[link removed]] that
spearheaded the remarkable "Pheonix-Gaza" reconstruction project.

Together, Palestinian engineers, architects, university students and
researchers have produced a document of extraordinary scope and
optimism [[link removed]], dedicated to reconstructing
housing, health, education, neighborhoods, heritage and more. What's
needed is a ceasefire and a political horizon to draw external
commitments and funds.

Among Palestinians, the principles, vision and plans are there.
Nusseibeh raised one final item the international community can
provide, that the people of region – Israelis and Palestinians alike
– so desperately need. Referring to peace process of a bygone age,
he said, "The only way that we can begin to climb out of the hole that
we're in right now is to provide that hope. And that hope is only
going to come if we have a properly constructed international drive
towards a long-term peace."

_More articles by __Dahlia Scheindlin_
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_Haaretz_
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is an independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook both
on domestic issues and on international affairs. It has a journalistic
staff of some 330 reporters, writers and editors. The paper is perhaps
best known for its Op-ed page, where its senior columnists - among
them some of Israel's leading commentators and analysts - reflect on
current events. Haaretz plays an important role in the shaping of
public opinion and is read with care in government and decision-making
circles. Get a __digital subscription_
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* Hamas
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