A Mandate for Exploitation: the UN’s Colonial “Board of Peace” and the Subjugation of Gaza
Summary: the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution placing Gaza under the control of a US-led “Board of Peace” and authorising an American-commanded international force. This neo-colonial act violates international law, extinguishes Palestinian sovereignty, and rewards genocide.
In a stark betrayal of its own founding principles, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Monday that formally institutes a neo-colonial administration over the Gaza Strip. The US-drafted resolution, which endorses President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, places the devastated Palestinian territory under the control of a US-led “Board of Peace” (BoP) and authorises an “International Stabilisation Force” (ISF) under American command. While framed as a pathway to peace and reconstruction, the resolution is, in reality, a flagrant violation of international law and a brazen act of imperial imposition that rewards genocide and extinguishes, for the foreseeable future, any hope for a sovereign Palestinian state.
The resolution’s mechanics reveal a carefully constructed system of external domination. The newly established Board of Peace, to be chaired by President Trump himself, is endowed with “international legal personality,” effectively granting it sovereign powers over Gaza’s governance, borders, reconstruction, and economic life. This board will oversee a “transitional administration” for a minimum of two years, with its mandate easily extendable beyond the stated deadline of December 31, 2027.
The security apparatus is equally concerning. The ISF, operating under a unified command “acceptable to the BoP” and overseen by US Central Command from a base in southern Israel, is tasked with the demilitarisation of Gaza. This force is not a neutral UN peacekeeping mission; it is an arm of the BoP, designed to enforce the board’s dictates. Furthermore, reports that the US is considering using Israeli-backed militias and gangs to enforce order promise to plunge Gaza into a vortex of inter-Palestinian conflict, creating a sanctioned security vacuum ripe for abuse and collaboration.
![]()
US forces have a front-row seat in Israel's genocide in Palestine from their base in Ramat Gan in the Tel Aviv suburbs
The resolution pays lip service to a future Palestinian state, but its conditions make such an outcome virtually impossible. The BoP’s authority is set to continue until the Palestinian Authority (PA) completes an unspecified “reform programme,” the satisfaction of which would be judged by the very US and Israeli governments that have actively worked to undermine the PA. This is a classic colonial tactic: conditioning self-determination on the occupied meeting standards set by the occupier, standards that can be moved at will to ensure they are never met.
Crucially, the resolution provides no guarantee for a full Israeli military withdrawal. It states that the IDF will only leave once the ISF is deployed and Israel itself agrees that certain “demilitarisation milestones” have been met. With Israeli troops currently occupying over 50% of Gaza, this clause grants Israel a permanent veto over its own withdrawal. This, coupled with plans to limit reconstruction to Israeli-occupied areas, lays the groundwork for a permanent Israeli occupation, formalising the de facto annexation of large swathes of Palestinian land.
This resolution does not merely overlook international law; it actively tramples upon it. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its landmark 2024 advisory opinion, was unequivocal. It ruled that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and that it must end it “as rapidly as possible.” The court further obligated all states and international organisations, including the United Nations, “not to recognise as legal” the situation created by this unlawful occupation.
By establishing an external governing body that operates within and derives its authority from the context of this illegal occupation, the UN Security Council is doing precisely what the ICJ forbade: conferring a veneer of temporary legitimacy upon an illegal situation. It is an attempt to launder a brutal occupation and a devastating genocide through a diplomatic resolution.
The resolution also seeks to strip Palestinians of their right to resist. Under international law, peoples under colonial domination and foreign occupation have a legitimate right to armed resistance. By tasking the ISF with disarming Hamas and other factions without ending the occupation or granting freedom, the resolution criminalises a people’s fight for liberation while legitimising the power of their oppressor.
The parallels to historical colonial projects are undeniable. The “Board of Peace” is a modern-day equivalent of the colonial charter companies that administered territories for imperial powers, extracting resources and suppressing local autonomy. This plan recalls King Leopold II’s personal plunder of the Congo and the Eight-Nation Alliance’s 1900 invasion of China, where a coalition looted wealth under a false pretext. It also echoes the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a foreign invasion designed to crush an ideological movement by force. Like these precedents, the current coalition seeks to sanction an intervention that subjugates Gaza, overriding self-determination to impose its own political and economic control. Just as these past interventions were justified by a self-proclaimed “civilizing mission,” the Gaza plan is cloaked in the language of “stabilisation” and “good governance,” yet its core function remains the same: to decide the fate of a people without their consent, using international mechanisms to legitimise a fundamentally imperial project.
This is not a peace plan; it is a protection racket being imposed upon a population that has been subjected to months of genocidal violence, reducing their world to a moonscape where they die from bombs, disease, and hunger. To then present them with this ultimatum - surrender your sovereignty, your right to resist, and your resources in exchange for the possibility of reconstruction - is the height of extortion. It is imperialism masquerading as humanitarianism.
The global reaction reveals a world divided between power and principle. While the resolution passed with 13 votes and no opposition, the abstentions by permanent members Russia and China signal deep reservations about a plan that hands complete control to a US-chaired body without a clear UN role. Hamas has rightly rejected the resolution as an “international guardianship mechanism,” vowing to consider the ISF a party to the conflict if it attempts disarmament.
By providing the crucial endorsement that averted a Russian veto, the Palestinian Authority has irrevocably branded itself as a collaborationist body, betraying the very people it claims to represent. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately reiterated his rejection of Palestinian statehood, exposing the resolution’s central fiction: that it leads to a two-state solution.
The passage of this resolution marks a dark day for the United Nations and for international law. It confirms that in today’s geopolitical landscape, raw power overrides fundamental legal and moral norms. It is an unconscionable act that rewards genocide with political and economic control.
The path forward must be one of resistance, not only by the Palestinian people but by all nations and individuals who uphold the principles of justice and self-determination. The world must reject this colonial mandate and reaffirm the ICJ’s ruling: the occupation is illegal and must end. The focus must return to the immediate, unconditional end of the siege and occupation, the pursuit of accountability for genocide, and the unwavering support for the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to sovereignty and freedom in their entire land. This resolution, born of coercion and conceived in injustice, must be challenged, ignored, and ultimately consigned to the dustbin of history as a relic of an imperial arrogance the world can no longer tolerate.
Members can leave comments about this newsletter on the Arab Digest website.