Palestinian Community in Chile Critiques Trump’s «Peace Council»: A Disturbing Erosion of Global Norms

Original article: Comunidad Palestina de Chile cuestionó «Consejo de Paz» de Trump: «Alarmante y progresivo debilitamiento del orden internacional basado en normas»

The Palestinian Community in Chile has expressed grave concern regarding the «Peace Council» initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump. This council, presented as «a new mechanism» for addressing international conflicts and specifically the situation in Palestine and the Gaza Strip, raises significant alarms.

«While any initiative framed in the language of peace deserves serious examination, we caution that such proposals fit into an increasingly troubling trend: the gradual weakening of the international rules-based order, the diminishing of multilateralism, and the relativization of international law as the regulatory framework for conflicts between states and peoples,» stated the Palestinian Community of Chile.

«When peace is proposed outside the framework of the United Nations, its resolutions, and the fundamental principles of international law, it ceases to be a tool for justice and becomes an exercise of power,» they added.

Includes Netanyahu

One of the most concerning aspects for the Palestinian Community is the inclusion of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is accused of international crimes before the International Criminal Court.

«The mere inclusion of a person charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in an instance that aims to present itself as a guarantor of peace constitutes an irreconcilable contradiction and sends a devastating message to the international justice system,» the statement reads.

«Normalizing this situation severely undermines the principles of accountability, legality, and responsibility that uphold contemporary international law,» added the Palestinians residing in Chile.

They reminded that the Palestinian experience «harshly illustrates the risks of these approaches. For decades, our people have faced plans, councils, and formulas imposed from outside, created without their genuine participation and without addressing their inalienable rights.»

«No initiative can aspire to legitimacy if it does not recognize the Palestinian people as a full political subject, with the right to effectively participate in defining their own future. Peace cannot be built by replacing the voices of the people with external structures, nor by reducing a political, historical, and legal conflict to a merely administrative or reconstruction problem,» they argued.

«It is particularly alarming that, in a context marked by serious human rights violations, international crimes, and genocide witnessed in real-time, mechanisms that evade responsibilities are promoted, weakening international justice systems and shifting the focus from justice to political agreements devoid of clear legal obligations,» they warned.

Furthermore, they cautioned that such initiatives not only affect the Palestinian people but also compromise the credibility «of the international system as a whole and set a dangerous precedent for all peoples relying on international law as the last line of protection against the abuse of power.»

«The Palestinian Community in Chile reaffirms that a just and lasting peace is only possible based on the unwavering respect for international law, the end of occupation, the full recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination, and the strengthening—not the replacement—of the multilateral system. Any initiative that ignores these principles does not contribute to peace but deepens impunity and global instability,» they stated.

Finally, the Palestinian residents recalled that Chile has historically maintained a foreign policy committed to multilateralism, international legality, and the defense of human rights.

«We hope that this commitment persists and is coherently projected in the face of proposals that, under the discourse of peace, threaten to weaken the international order that has, with all its limitations, safeguarded peoples against the gravest crimes,» the statement concludes.

El Ciudadano