Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem has lashed out at the US' proposed "deal of the century" as another round in the "international injustice campaign against Palestinians", urging all Palestinian groups to vehemently oppose it and unite in fighting the "proposal", which he called still-born.
Qassem argued that as long as all Palestinian political forces fight against the "occupation" and for the "liberation of Palestine", Israel won't be able to implement the plan, which stipulates granting sovereignty over some of the West Bank settlements to Israel. The deputy head of Hezbollah recalled that the creation of Israel was made possible only with the help of the UK and that the country couldn't "demarcate" its borders properly due to the Palestinians fighting against it.
"It is now a proven fact that Israel does not have the ability to survive, and that its existence depends merely on international injustice and support of the United States and major powers", Sheikh Naim Qassem concluded.
Fiasco of "Deal of the Century"
The long-promised Trump administration plan for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was presented on 28 January 2020, but was immediately discarded by major Palestinian political forces. They argued that the plan failed to fulfil key demands of the Palestinian people – to grant Palestinian refugees and their descendants the "right of return" to previously abandoned lands and to establish a capital in Jerusalem.
Instead, the deal of the century envisaged the creation of a Palestinian state on separated swathes of land with a capital on the outskirts of East Jerusalem. Under the plan, Israel would gain sovereignty over additional West Bank settlements, while the newly created Palestinian state would receive two patches of land along the border with Egypt. All of the scattered Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, would be connected by highways under the deal.
Furthermore, the deal of the century would not allow the Palestinian state to have its own military, tasking Israel with guarding its borders instead. The Trump administration also put strong emphasis on the economic aspect of the plan, which promised $50 billion in investments in the Palestinian economy and neighbouring countries that would be funded by members of the international community. Palestinian political forces dismissed the idea when it was first rolled out in 2019 as an attempt to bribe the Palestinians that would ultimately fail.
