President Trump’s Middle East peace plan calls for a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem in return for the recognition of major Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The plan, announced midday on Tuesday, proposes a two-state solution in which Israel would freeze settlement construction for a period of four years. It includes a proposal for a tunnel connecting the West Bank to Gaza. Dubbed by Trump as the “deal of the century,” the plan sets a number of benchmarks for Palestinians to reach in order to achieve statehood.
“It’s been a long and very arduous process to arrive at this moment,” Trump said while standing beside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Tuesday.
The benchmarks include fighting terrorism and bolstering free speech, among other reforms. Trump said the proposal is a “suggestion” that can set the basis for negotiations.
The president called peace between the two parties “the most difficult challenge of all.”
“I was not elected to do small things or shy away from big problems,” Trump said to applause.
The proposal would also give Palestinians more land by offering land swaps south of Gaza. The future state would have to be demilitarized.
Trump met with Netanyahu and his political opponent Benny Gantz this week, and both have agreed to work on the plan regardless of who wins the Israeli election.
The recognition of Israeli settlements will be a major sticking point for Palestinians. The plan would also allow Israel to maintain sovereignty over much the Jordan Valley, a portion of which is in the West Bank, but in the future, that could be scaled back if a Palestinian state abides by and further develops conditions of the plan.
Trump said that if Palestinians accept the proposal, the United States will infuse the new state with about $50 billion to help with economic development.
“There are many countries that want to partake in this,” he said. “The Palestinian poverty rate will be cut in half and their GDP will double and triple.”
Further, the plan stipulates that all Muslims who wish to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, will be able to do so.
The plan was three years in the making and spearheaded by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Palestinians have preemptively rejected the proposal, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas calling Trump a “dog.”
“They called me from Washington, and I did not pick up the phone,” Abbas said, according to the Jerusalem Post. “I said no and I will continue to say no … We are going for difficult days, and we are beginning to bear the consequences of the refusal. Resistance must be escalated at all points of friction. All young people must be encouraged.”
Protests rocked Gaza on Tuesday ahead of the announcement, with demonstrators burning tires and chanting.
[Opinion: Trump’s surprisingly reasonable Israeli-Palestinian peace deal]
