What Alex Pretti Has to Do with Mahmoud Khalil | Palestine Policy Roundup 01.26.26
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Delia Ramirez: “Israeli forces continue to blatantly disregard international law and Palestinian lives. Their campaign of death and destruction goes beyond Gaza. We cannot allow Netanyahu to continue starving, displacing, and murdering Palestinians. It is past time for Congress to take action and protect Palestinian lives. Pass the Block the Bombs Act now!”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “In yet another outrageous action, the Netanyahu gov just demolished the @UNRWA HQ in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu & Trump have pushed fake propaganda that UNRWA is a proxy for Hamas, as far-right politicians in Israel work to erase the Palestinian refugee identity altogether. Europe & the international community need to stand up.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro: “Israel is actively stealing Palestinian land in the West Bank. Palestinians are being forced to leave and their homes are being destroyed. Secretary Rubio has acknowledged that these actions undermine peace. I joined my colleagues to demand Secretary Rubio stand up against Israel’s bullying.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
💥 TRUMP, KUSHNER UNVEIL GAZA PLAN IN DAVOS
BOARD INAUGURATED: Last Thursday, President Trump launched his so-called Board of Peace on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. More than two dozen countries joined President Trump in launching the corporate-style board, which Trump would lead personally and possibly for the rest of his life.
Israel–which has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza–joined the board, which exposes the farce of its self-described peace mandate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not present at the Davos signing ceremony due to concerns that he could be arrested by Swiss authorities under his International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, according to the Israeli press. Netanyahu is wanted by the ICC over his alleged involvement in Israel’s genocidal atrocities in Gaza.
Among other countries joining the Trump board are: Belarus, which is a participant in Russia’s war in Ukraine; the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, which have been accused of human rights violations; and Hungary and Argentina, whose presidents are part of the global far-right with which President Trump and his administration are aligned.
GLOBAL MANDATE: As reported in last week’s newsletter, the board’s charter makes clear that it has morphed with President Trump's growing expansionist agenda, and its mandate has broadened beyond Gaza with plans to be implemented around the world.
Last week, President Trump suggested that the board could replace the UN–confirming once again that the board’s purpose is to shape the world order according to his whims.
President Trump doubled down on this vision of creating his own world order when he rescinded Canada’s invitation to the board following the Canadian prime minister’s speech at the Davos meetings.
THE TRUMP-KUSHNER HEIST: Following President Trump’s ceremony, his son-in-law Jared Kushner unveiled a plan for Gaza that once again repackages the president’s stated desire to personally profit from his position and exploit Palestinians in Gaza.
Complete with renderings that seemed like they were ripped from AI-powered image generators, Kushner’s presentation promised data centers and a high-tech playground that would serve the president and his donors and allies rather than Palestinians.
The plan also calls for all of Gaza’s coastline to be developed into 180 towers that would be used for tourism. Both Jared Kushner and President Trump have both expressed their desire to profit from Gaza’s coast, which should raise even more concern that this plan does not have Palestinians’ interests at heart.
Palestinians would also lose access to much of their agricultural lands in Gaza, raising key questions about food security following Israel’s deliberate and manufactured starvation of Palestinians there and its damaging or destruction of nearly 99% of Gaza’s agricultural land.
GHETTOS: Kushner’s presentation also revived the prospect of placing Palestinians in ghettos throughout Gaza. Officially dispensing with the idea of partitioning Gaza along the Israeli redeployment line, this plan instead proposes that Palestinians be confined to a handful of areas marked for residential use.
It was not clear from Kushner’s remarks to what extent Palestinians would be allowed to leave these compounds and to freely travel in Gaza. Several iterations of this plan proposed as far back as the beginning of Israel’s genocide called for caging Palestinians in ghettos.
Implementation of this part of the plan appears to already be underway–according to Drop Site News and Forensic Architecture, Israel is clearing land that would presumably be used to build an iteration of these compounds upon the ashes of Rafah.
This community would reportedly be funded by the United Arab Emirates, and, according to Drop Site News, Palestinians who wish to enter this area will be forced to subject themselves to biometric and digital surveillance. They would also be forced to enter the area through a checkpoint.
This plan could give Israel a major stake in controlling the lives of Palestinians who live in this area. The area is also in the southern part of Gaza near its border with Egypt–potentially opening a pathway for Israel’s agenda for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
ONGOING OCCUPATION: The Kushner-Trump plan also provides for Israel’s permanent military occupation of Gaza along the perimeter of the area. This would not only continue to shrink the space for Palestinians to live in, but it would presumably mean that Israel would continue to control the Rafah gate–and therefore enable it to maintain its blockade indefinitely.
The plan also calls for a phased reconstruction of Gaza that starts in Rafah. However, each phase only gives Israel more chances to renege on its commitment to the plan and continue its genocidal violence in Gaza.
IN THE NEWS
🚨 DHS SMEARS ACTIVISTS FROM COLUMBIA TO MINNEAPOLIS
SMEARED: President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security escalated their rhetorical assaults on the First Amendment right of peaceful assembly and against activists who oppose their policies following the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Pretti, who was killed by Customs and Border Patrol agents as he attempted to film them carrying out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, was immediately demonized by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other allies of President Trump. Pretti’s family responded by denouncing this demonization as “sickening lies.”
This follows the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who also was killed by ICE agents and who was similarly demonized by the president’s allies after she was killed.
Additionally, last week an ICE agent applied a similar smear against a legal observer after photographing her license plate and threatening to put that information into a database.
PARALLELS: This escalation in the demonization of activists who support immigrants is disturbing. It also closely reflects the same pattern of demonization applied against student activists for Palestinian rights by the Trump administration.
UNSEALED MEMOS: Last Thursday, a federal judge unsealed internal memos that confirmed that the Trump administration, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally, targeted students for deportation in response to their support for Palestinian rights.
The memos explicitly cited Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi’s involvement in protests in support of Palestinian rights at Columbia University as reasons for their targeting by Rubio and ICE.
Another memo cited Rümeysa Öztürk’s op-ed about divesting in support of Palestinian rights as the motivating force behind her abduction by ICE last year.
All three memos attempted to demonize supporters of the movement for Palestinian rights in the same way that DHS is now demonizing activism in support of immigrants.
The memos were sent to the State Department by DHS. While the contents of some of these memos have been reported before, this is the first time that they have become publicly available.
THE TIP OF THE SPEAR: As Secretary Noem and Customs and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino smear activists who are trying to protect their communities, the Trump administration is also continuing to smear student activists. This also points to a shared strategy that the administration is deploying against both groups.
The abductions of student activists are a part of the Trump administration's implementation of Project Esther–a Heritage Foundation plan to dismantle advocacy in support of Palestinian rights. The memos provide proof of that implementation.
Additionally, some of the memos cite a repressive executive order issued by President Trump that serves to stifle speech and activism in support of Palestinian rights.
Since last year, the administration has issued more orders and memos, including National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, to target more speech and activism that opposes President Trump’s racist and extremist agendas. These orders explicitly reference immigration rights activism as a target.
This makes clear that Palestine is the tip of the spear in the broader fight for democratic rights and freedom of speech–President Trump’s sweeping use of executive power is a key tactic that threatens all.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
⛔ ISRAEL’S CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS CONTINUE AMID DAVOS DISTRACTION
ISRAEL’S RAFAH RUSE: Once again, Israel has clarified that it has no intention of opening the Rafah border crossing along the lines agreed to in the first phase of the Trump plan for Gaza.
Israel’s continued closure of the pedestrian crossing at the Rafah gate is a violation of the Trump plan for Gaza. Time and time again, Israel has teased the reopening of the crossing only to renege on its commitment.
Israel has now conditioned the reopening of the crossing on the return of the body of the final remaining Israeli captive in Gaza–but the Trump plan called for the crossing’s reopening in exchange for the release of all living Israeli captives.
This comes as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Israel seeks to restrict the number of Palestinians entering Gaza and ensure that more Palestinians exit through the crossing. While many of the details of this plan remain unclear, the report notes plans for a military checkpoint near the Rafah gate.
This also comes on the heels of Israel’s blocking of the Trump plan’s committee of Palestinian technocrats from entering Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
GENOCIDE CONTINUES: Israel also continued to attack and kill Palestinians last week in violation of the ceasefire. In one of its latest attacks, Israel killed three journalists as they were travelling on assignment last Thursday.
The journalists were Mohamed Qishta, Anas Ghneim and Abdel Raouf Shaat. Shaat was a contributor to both Agence France Presse and CBS News.
The strike occurred more than a mile beyond (to the west of) the Israeli redeployment line–also known as the yellow line–in the area where Palestinians are currently displaced. The journalists’ car was also reportedly marked as belonging to journalists.
On the same day, Israel also killed Moatsem al-Sharafy, a 13-year-old boy who was collecting firewood.
Photo: Darth Stabro, via Wikimedia Commons