Jeffrey D. Sachs and Sybil Fares offer a revised version of the Trump plan for an end of the war in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump during a joint press conference on Sept. 29 announcing the U.S. peace plan for Gaza. (White House / Daniel Torok)
By Jeffrey D. Sachs and Sybil Fares
Common Dreams
President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan offers some constructive proposals on hostages, humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Yet it is marred by an unmistakable colonial framework: Gaza is to be overseen by Trump himself, with Tony Blair, the former U.K. prime minister, and other outsiders cast as trustees for Palestinian governance — while Palestinian statehood is deferred indefinitely.
This logic is not new. It reprises the century-long Anglo-American approach to Palestine since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, when Britain acquired the Mandate over Palestine, and through successive U.S. interventions, direct and indirect, in the region since 1945.
A real peace plan must eliminate the colonial scaffolding. It should restore Palestinian sovereignty by addressing the central issue: Palestinian statehood.
The plan must empower Palestinian agency by establishing that the Palestinian Authority holds governance from the outset, that economic planning is exclusively in the hands of Palestinians, that no external “viceroys” intervene, and that a clear and short timeline is set for Israeli withdrawal and for full Palestinian sovereignty by the start of 2026.
This is a true decolonized plan: close in substance to Trump’s, but freed from the 100-year trickery of mandates, trusteeship, and other outside impositions.
It is also consistent with international law: in line with the 2024 ruling of the International Court of Justice, the recent resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, and the recognition of Palestine by 157 countries around the world.
Revised Trump Plan With No Colonial Strings Attached
Palestinian flag in the West Bank city Ramallah, the de facto administrative capital of Palestine, 2015. (Chetanya Robinson, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
We revise the Trump plan, preserving its core elements related to the release of hostages, end of fighting, withdrawal of the Israeli army, emergency humanitarian relief, and the reconstruction of war-torn Palestine, while eliminating the colonial language and baggage.
Readers may make a point-by-point comparison with the original Trump Plan found here.
1. Palestine and Israel will be terror-free countries that do not pose a threat to their neighbors.
2. Palestine will be redeveloped for the benefit of the Palestinians, who have suffered more than enough.
3. If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed line to prepare for a hostage release. All military operations will end.
4. Within 72 hours of both sides publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.
5. Once all hostages are released, Israel will release life sentence prisoners plus Palestinians who were detained after Oct. 7, 2023.
6. Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.
7. Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip. At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the Jan. 19, 2025, agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads.
Palestinian civilians in Gaza on Jan. 29 after a ceasefire took effect earlier that month. (Jaber Jehad Badwan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
8. Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party. Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under the Jan. 19, 2025, agreement.
9. Palestine, and Gaza as an integral part of it, will be governed by the Palestinian Authority. International advisors may support this effort, but sovereignty lies with the Palestinians.
10. The Palestinian Authority, supported by a panel of Arab-region experts and outside experts as may be chosen by the Palestinians, will develop a reconstruction and development plan. Outside proposals may be considered, but economic planning will be Arab-led.
11. A special economic zone may be established by the Palestinians, with tariffs and access rates negotiated by Palestine and partner countries.
12. No one will be forced to leave any sovereign Palestinian territory. Those who wish to leave may do so freely and return freely.
Kalandia checkpoint from West Bank into Jerusalem. (Joe Lauria)
13. Hamas and other factions will have no role in governance. All military and terror infrastructure will be dismantled and decommissioned, verified by independent monitors.
14. Regional partners will guarantee that Hamas and other factions comply, ensuring that Gaza poses no threat to its neighbours or its own people.
15. Arab and international partners, as per the invitation of Palestine, will deploy a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) beginning Nov. 1, 2025, to support and train Palestinian security, in consultation with Egypt and Jordan. The ISF will secure borders, protect the population, and facilitate the rapid movement of goods to rebuild Palestine.
16. Israel will neither occupy nor annex Gaza or the West Bank. Israeli forces will fully withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territories by Dec. 31, 2025, as the ISF and Palestinian security establish control.
17. If Hamas delays or rejects the proposal, aid and reconstruction will proceed in areas under ISF and PA authority.
18. An interfaith dialogue process will be established to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.
19. The State of Palestine will govern its full sovereign territories as of Jan. 1, 2026, in line with the Sept. 12 resolution of the U.N. General Assembly and the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice.
20. The United States will immediately recognize a sovereign State of Palestine, with permanent United Nations membership, as a peaceful nation living side by with the state of Israel.
Map of Trump peace plan for Gaza, presented on Sept. 29, 2024. (White House, Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
Here are the main differences from the Trump Plan.
Palestinian Sovereignty and Statehood: Trump’s version deferred Palestinian statehood to some indefinite future, contingent on reforms and external approval. The decolonized plan sets firm dates: Israel withdraws by Nov. 1, 2025, and Palestine assumes full sovereignty by Jan.1, 2026.
One hundred and twenty six years since the Versailles Treaty is enough.
Colonial Oversight Removed: Trump’s proposal created a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump himself, with Tony Blair as a leading member. The decolonized plan eliminates this, recognizing that Palestinians require no foreign viceroys. Governance rests with the Palestinians from day one.
Economic Sovereignty: Trump’s plan announced a “Trump Economic Development Plan” to remake Gaza. The decolonized plan leaves economic planning to the Palestinians supported by Arab experts, with outside proposals considered only at Palestinian discretion.
End of Anglo-American Trusteeship: Trump cast the U.S. as the guarantor and arbiter of Palestinian future, with support of the U.K. The decolonized plan explicitly ends this 100-year model, affirming Palestinian and Arab leadership.
Palestine resistance fighters against the British mandate, 1936. (PLO Collection, Institute for Palestine Studies, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
The revised 20-point plan, in short, is not radically different in form from Trump’s. It retains provisions for demilitarization, humanitarian relief, economic reconstruction, and interfaith dialogue. The main difference lies with Palestinian sovereignty and statehood.
For more than a century, Palestinians have been subjected to external colonial control: British Mandate rule, U.S. diplomatic dominance, Israeli occupation, and periodic schemes of trusteeship as in Trump’s new plan.
From the Balfour Declaration to Versailles to Oslo to Trump’s “Board of Peace,” Palestinians have not been treated as sovereign actors. This plan corrects that and recognizes that the Palestinian people are a nation of enormous talents, and highly educated and experienced experts. They don’t need tutelage. They need sovereignty.
Our revised plan affirms that Palestinians, through their own authority, must finally and at long last govern themselves, make their own economic choices, and chart their own destiny.
International actors may advise and support them, but they must not impose their will. The withdrawal of Israel and the recognition of Palestine’s sovereignty must be fixed and non-negotiable milestones.
A real peace plan must be aligned with international law including the clear-cut rulings of the International Court of Justice and the United Nations resolutions.
A real peace plan must be aligned with the overwhelming will of the global community that supports the implementation of the two-state solution. All parties to the peace plan should subscribe to this framework.
This is the moment for honesty, global resolve, and moral clarity. Only practical steps that implement Palestinian sovereignty and statehood will bring lasting peace.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a university professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed The Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also president of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the U.N. Broadband Commission for Development.
Sybil Fares is a specialist and adviser in Middle East policy and sustainable development at SDSN.
This article is from Common Dreams
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The whole problem results from a 2000 year old trickery of stealing a messiah and defaming an entire body of people over centuries. They are having trouble getting over such military trickery and religious acquisition., Our use of weaponizing religion in Afghanistan and the Ukraine is just more of the strategic trickery of the the warfare civilization for full spectrum dominance of world culture.
We also may resort to supporting both sides against each other as in Germany vs USSR or Iraq against Iran or Japan against communist insurgency in China.
This is not civilized behavior either.
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Professor Sachs states that Palestine must be very rapidly established as a sovereign state.
Yet in his partly refashioned version of Trump’s ‘peace plan’, he stipulates that:
(a) Palestine must be governed by the so-called Palestinian Authority (knowing, as he surely does, that the colloborator Mahmoud Abbas and his Ramallah clan are despised by most of the Palestinian people); and
(b) Hamas and other factions must play no role in governance.
So where do those two dictates leave Palestinian “sovereignty”?
Great question! Clearly Sachs has demonstrated that, at least in this essay, he is incapable of putting himself in the place of the Palestinians. His arrogance is chilling.
With respect, I continue to be stunned by those who are not Palestinians who feel that they have the right to determine the fate of Palestine and Palestinians. Your plan reflects an absence of Palestinian thinking, concerns, or input. Hamas was elected by the Palestinians. It should be up to them to determine who is in office. What about all of the settlements well beyond any original borders? What about the fact that the very creation of the state of Israel was illegal and immoral?
“Palestine will govern its full and sovereign territories” that are in rubble, ruined for decades, poisoned. Only those who will not suffer the consequences could think this just.
“The Palestinian authority will…” Really? The very group that has, from the start, betrayed the Palestinains?
I find this arrogant, unfeeling, and unworthy.
Speaking of the GAZA concentration camp breakout of the night of Oct. 6th 2023 whereafter the Israeli regime once again applies “reverse logic fallacy”, such as reversing cause and effect.
i) Roman Period (c. 63 BCE–395 CE): During this period, Gaza had a diverse population of Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and Bedouins. The city was a prosperous trading hub and center of Hellenistic culture.
ii) Earlier periods: Preceding Roman rule, the population of Gaza and the surrounding region was shaped by centuries of conquest and occupation.
iii) The Philistines, a seafaring people with cultural ties to the Aegean, settled Gaza in the 12th century BCE and made it one of their major cities.
iv) Before the Philistines, the area was controlled by the ancient Egyptians, and earlier still, its settlement is attributed to the Canaanites.
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1. What is the definition of terror-free, when the very notion of ‘terror’ is not even universally agreed upon?
2. Why does once “all hostages” are returned appear to refer only to Israeli captives held in Gaza since Oct. 7th 2023?
If the word ‘returned’ in this context, in fact means – given their freedom, then the term “all hostages” must include “all of Palestine” for all the Arab Palestinians of Palestine, including especially Gaza, have been institutionally held hostage to the Zionist colonial project of Israel, dating back to May 1948 ,and way before, at the very minimum!
If a life sentence actually means for the duration of life, then the state of Israel, since Oct. 7th 2023, has arbitrarily murdered many tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men, illegally – without due cause; long before they would have died of “natural causes” even in the “largest concentration camp in the world.
Ergo, Israel will release life sentence prisoners, plus ‘Palestinians’, who were detained after Oct. 7, 2023 is openly nothing more than an intentional attempt at a deceitful, reinterpretation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four doublespeak idea, wherein language is deliberately weaponized to obscure, distort, and/or reverse the true meaning of words, often to manipulate truth and control thought; a deceptive communication strategy where language appears straightforward, but is ambiguous, empty, hiding unpleasant realities, ultimately serving the interests of those in power who actually hold totalitarian control.
“Hamas and other factions will have no role in governance.” In other words, the inhabitants of Gaza shall continue to have no independence or sovereignty over their own internal affairs.
Who are the Regional Arab Palestinian partners, independent and sovereign enough, who will guarantee that, the way beyond odious Zionist regime, and other international factions will comply, ensuring that a Jewish state no longer poses a threat to its neighbours or its own people?
Attempting genocide is surely the most egregiously serious of war crimes.
And so goes international diplomacy these days…. superfluous and even more long-winded than this comment!
Thank you for this history lesson and all your comments.
It is NOT A WAR. IT IS A GENOCIDE.
Indded! Sachs is so far off the mark one wonders that he is still on faculty at Columbia. Or anywhere.
Why should Palestinians accept the current borders imposed by the colonial West? Restore Palestine’s original borders. No one had the right to change them. Let the Israelis who are mostly Europeans relocate.
Yes! Yes! and Yes again. Sachs is way off the mark!
What exactly were “Palestine’s” original borders?
The 1947 partition plan?
Those that existed under the Ottoman Empire before the Brits took over after WWI?
Those that existed during the various Crusades?
Those that existed after the Islamic conquest of the Levant?
Those that existed during the Roman occupation?
Those that existed during King David’s reign?
Those that existed during the Pharaoh’s reign in Egypt?
What we call ‘Israel’ or ‘Palestine’ today has been passed back and forth by various ethnic groups and empires for millennia. As with every other patch of land on earth, it was subject to the right of conquest. The state of Israel is the reigning conqueror the region, so they get to determine the borders. Just as the British, Ottomans, Crusaders, Mohammedans, ancient Jews, Romans, Philistines, and ancient Egyptians did before them.
Conquest is the only right that humanity has ever respected when it comes to territory. If you can win it and hold it, it is yours. That’s how Americans won ‘America’, how the Romans/Angles/Saxons/Vikings/Normans won England, and how the Muslim caliphate won much of Spain during al-Andalus, and how the Mongols won much of Asia. You may not like it, you may not think it’s fair, but it is how the world works.