(Peace Council) and the Future of the International System and the Palestinian Cause

On this twenty-second day of January 2026, in the Swiss city of Davos, a new international system was born under the leadership of Trump and the beginning of the end of the United Nations as an international reference. The Peace Council has gone beyond the mandate granted to it by the Security Council last November, which was authorized only to stop the wars in the Gaza Strip. The challenge now lies before those absent from the global Peace Council: Russia, China, the European countries that are cautious about the Peace Council, and other countries including the United Nations. Can these countries form a competitive pole to counter the American pole? Will the United Nations continue its work and remain in its headquarters in New York knowing that Washington is a major reason for obstructing its tasks in resolving international conflicts through its use of the veto and its withdrawal from many international organizations like the World Health Organization, UNESCO, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)?

This day will also be marked by the final declaration of Gaza’s separation, removing it from its national context and establishing a Gaza entity or state under American guardianship, where Palestine—the state and the people—and the official and legitimate political leadership have disappeared. The situation in the West Bank and the rapid escalation of settlement projects under international and Arab complicity were not addressed, and instead, Gaza and (the people of Gaza) took their place, as mentioned by Dr. Ali Shait, head of the Gaza Management Committee.

What is happening has definitively blocked any possibility for the Palestinian Authority to return to the Gaza Strip and has dealt a death blow to the two-state solution project, the Arab Peace Initiative, and all United Nations resolutions regarding the Palestinian cause, as well as the decisions of Arab summits, not to mention the resolutions of the Palestinian official bodies, the National and Central Councils.
All of this poses a challenge to the Palestinian leadership that is absent from the Davos Forum. Will it continue to bet on international legitimacy decisions as a reference to restore Palestinian rights and establish a Palestinian state?

Even at the level of the Gaza Strip, Trump's and his son-in-law Kushner's words do not bode well for the people of Gaza, whether in terms of Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Strip or stopping its continuous targeting of civilians and the continued closure of the Rafah crossing and the scarcity of aid entering the Strip. These issues are the practical test of Trump’s credibility regarding the Gaza file.