[Salon] Trump's Gaza Board of Peace Aims to Rival UN, Charter Shows (HAARETZ)

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

FM: John Whitbeck

Transmitted below is an interesting HAARETZ report on the Charter of Donald Trump's "Board of Peace", which, in an act of institutional suicide, was preemptively blessed by the hallucinatory UN Security Council Resolution 2803.

Welcome to the Global Dictatorship of the Emperor-for-Life.

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/2026-01-17/ty-article/.premium/trumps-proposed-gaza-board-of-peace-aims-to-rival-un-charter-suggests/0000019b-cb7f-d810-a99f-dbff6b830000

Trump's Gaza Board of Peace Aims to Rival UN, Charter Shows

Unlike the United Nations, the Board of Peace will hand Trump personal and remarkably broad powers and link members' terms to financial contributions. The charter implicitly criticizes the UN: Haaretz previously reported that it plans to address conflicts in places other than Gaza.

By Liza Rozovsky

January 17, 2026

The charter of U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, a body established with the stated purpose of managing Gaza's reconstruction, suggests that Trump has begun to position it as a rival to the United Nations. Notably, the document does not mention Gaza by name.

The document, obtained by Haaretz, was sent on Saturday to around 60 heads of state -- including in Turkey, Egypt, Argentina, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia -- along with an invitation to join the board, several diplomatic sources told Haaretz.

According to the document, the board will work to "restore dependable and lawful governance and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict" in place of other organizations.

The charter also implicitly criticizes the UN. It opens with emphasizing the need for "a more nimble and effective international peace-building body," adding that durable peace requires "the courage to depart from ... institutions that have too often failed."

The charter treats the chairmanship as a personal role rather than one linked to the U.S. presidency, stating that "Donald J. Trump shall serve as inaugural Chairman of the Board of Peace," with no reference to the office of the president or any fixed term.

Remarkably, the board's chairmanship is not tied to the U.S. presidency and does not end when Trump leaves office.

As chairman, Trump would wield sweeping authority over the body's composition, operations and even its continued existence. He alone would invite states to join, renew or terminate their membership, appoint and remove members of the executive board, nominate its chief executive and veto any executive decision, subject only to a possible two-thirds veto.

He would have exclusive power to create or dissolve subsidiary bodies, issue binding resolutions, designate his own successor and dissolve the organization outright or renew it at will every two years.

Trump would have final approval over all major board decisions, set meeting agendas, break tie votes and serve as the ultimate arbiter of the charter's interpretation. Trump would have "exclusive authority to create, modify, or dissolve subsidiary entities," select and remove members of the Executive Board, and veto its decisions "at any time thereafter."

The document further provides that "replacement of the Chairman may occur only following voluntary resignation or as a result of incapacity," which must be determined by "a unanimous vote of the Executive Board," underscoring how insulated the role is from political change.

The chairman is also required to "at all times designate a successor," who would "immediately assume the position of the Chairman and all associated duties and authorities," reinforcing that continuity of leadership flows from Trump's designation rather than from any public office he or a succesor holds.

The charter also ties membership privileges to financial contributions, carving out a special exemption for major donors.

While most member states are limited to three-year terms, the charter states that "the three-year membership term shall not apply to Member States that contribute more than $1 billion in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter's entry into force," effectively allowing wealthier backers to retain their seats indefinitely, subject to the chairman's discretion.

Haaretz reported earlier this week, citing three sources, that the White House is advancing plans to grant a broad mandate to a proposed Board of Peace that would administer the Gaza Strip and eventually take on other global conflicts.

According to one of the sources, senior U.S. officials who are promoting the initiative "see it as something very close to a new kind of UN, made up of selected countries that would make decisions affecting the world."

The White House on Friday announced some Executive Board meembers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff; Trump's son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner; Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Capital Management, reportedly one of the largest private investment firms worldwide; World Bank Group President Ajay Banga; U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel; and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Under the Executive Board will sit the Gaza Executive Board. Its members include two former UN envoys to the Middle East, the Turkish foreign minister, an Israeli businessman, the Gaza cease-fire mediators and some members of the Executive Board.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the Gaza Executive Board's members, saying their appointment "was not coordinated with Israel and is contrary to its policy" in a statement in Hebrew on Saturday.

It was initially unclear which committee Netanyahu was referring to, and Reuters noted it was the Gaza Executive Board, where Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will sit.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also invited to sit at the Board of Peace overnight on Saturday, his office said. According to a diplomatic source, the leaders of all thre mediating countries -- Egypt, Qatar and Turkey -- were invited to take part. Another diplomatic source confirmed that Argentinian President Javier Milei was also invited to join the board.

Trump on Friday also announced the Gaza Executive Board, responsible for day-to-day coordination with the Palestinian technocratic committee, which was announced on Wednesday by Witkoff.