Trump’s ruthless Israel-Palestinian plan shows how important Prince Charles is

Both the US president and the Prince of Wales have marked 2020 by highlighting the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict. But their positions are, unsurprisingly, very different, says Nabila Ramdani

Bejamin Netanyahu with Donald Trump at the White House in January (Reuters)

The start of a new decade is traditionally a time of optimism and renewal, and both American president Donald Trump and heir to the throne Prince Charles have already marked 2020 by highlighting the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict. Their positions on the most intractable foreign policy issue in the world today are, unsurprisingly, very different.

Trump has unveiled a ruthlessly one-sided annexation plan – one that is provably illegal under international law – and principally aimed at boosting Israel’s colonial ambitions. The US head of state chose to tell the world about his ludicrously mistitled “Peace to Prosperity” road map while standing next to a grinning Benjamin Netanyahu, the indicted Israeli prime minister who is awaiting trial for breach of trust, bribery and fraud. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Many, including senior politicians and United Nations officials, have for years argued that there is enough evidence to put Netanyahu in the dock as a war criminal at the International Criminal Court, but Trump has shown no concerns about this at all.

In contrast, the Prince of Wales surrounded himself with both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as religious leaders of all denominations, when he paid a historic first visit to the Occupied West Bank and walked through Bethlehem in January. Charles shared his unifying ideas and – most significantly of all – expressed a deep affinity with those who suffer the most from Israeli aggression.

“It breaks my heart, therefore, that we should continue to see so much suffering and division,” the prince told his Palestinian audience. “No one arriving in Bethlehem today could miss the signs of continued hardship and the situation you face … It is my dearest wish that the future will bring freedom, justice and equality to all Palestinians, enabling you to thrive and prosper.”

The impact of such words should not be underestimated, especially as the Queen has never paid a visit to either Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories during her entire 68-year reign. Britain has traditionally had a special relationship with Israel – one which normally precludes senior representatives of the UK speaking up for subjugated Palestinians.

Israel’s hugely powerful position in the Middle East is as much the result of unquestioning support from the west as it is due to ferocious operators such as Netanyahu.

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is notoriously asymmetrical. Israel has a vast war machine, allowing it to pulverise civilian communities with state-of-the-art fighter jets and missiles, armoured vehicles, sniper rifles, and an arsenal of other weapons. The multibillion-dollar financial and military aid funding all this lethal aggression mainly comes from American taxpayers. The UK also continues to sell hundreds of millions of pounds worth of arms to Israel.

All of this is accompanied by unrelenting propaganda that alleges that Israel has every right to indiscriminately kill, maim and imprison Palestinians, while also stealing their land. Those who object to this savagery are told by the vociferous pro-Israel lobby to concentrate on other countries with dismal human rights records.

This simplistic attempt to shut down criticism of course conveniently ignores the fact that pariah states such as Bashar al-Assad’s Syria or Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea are not key allies of America and the UK. Such high-profile despots are certainly regularly vilified too.

At least five Palestinians, including teenage stone throwers, have been shot dead since Trump’s divisive plan was announced. Two were killed in the Occupied West Bank when clashes broke out while the Israeli military was demolishing the home of a suspected militant. There were 12 Israeli soldiers hurt – one seriously – when a car driven by a Palestinian from East Jerusalem rammed into them in the disputed city.

Such incidents are the day-to-day reality of a seemingly insolvable conflict stretching back to the creation of Israel on Palestinian land in 1948. It appears that men like Trump and Netanyahu view the human cost – and especially the loss of Palestinian lives – as being of little consequence in relation to the greater objective of Israeli hegemony.

In response to the Palestinians’ wholesale rejection of the Trump plan, Netanyahu had a message for them: “We will do everything necessary to protect our security, to define our borders, [and] to ensure our future. We will do it with you or without you.”

The words had nothing to do with renewal. They were as dark and threatening as most uttered by the leaders of a regime which, with the help of their equally sinister American backers, is hell bent on crushing Palestinians, and all of their ambitions towards statehood.

In such circumstances, voices like those of Prince Charles have never been more important. That someone who would normally be expected to align himself with Israel, whatever its conduct, pleaded for freedom for its victims is a cause for considerable new-decade optimism.