By Andrew Klein

Dedication: To my wife – who helps me see clearly every morning, over a cup of coffee.

I. The Board of Peace: Development as Erasure

Trump’s “Board of Peace” is not a peace initiative. It is a permanent concentration of power designed to legitimise dispossession, commercialise destruction, and convert grave breaches of international law into a branded property development project. By appointing himself chairman for life and granting himself the authority to select his own successor, Trump has constructed a self-perpetuating body devoid of democratic mandate, legal accountability, or international legitimacy.

The central objective is to advance Trump’s openly stated ambition to transform Gaza into a high-tech luxury destination — the so-called “Gaza Riviera“. This framing reduces the reconstruction of a devastated territory with a right to Palestinian statehood to a real estate transaction. It treats land as an asset to be monetised and people as variables to be managed, while Palestinian rights, consent, and sovereignty are excluded entirely from the equation.

Jared Kushner’s public pitch at Davos made this vision explicit: private development without Palestinian peoples’ ownership, growth without rights, and reconstruction without self-determination. Such a framework mirrors historical patterns of colonial economic domination and violates the core principles of international humanitarian and human rights law.

The Board of Peace further seeks to launder illegality through institutional endorsement. The decision by members of the UN Security Council to endorse this body represents a profound failure of legal responsibility. No political forum has the authority to legitimise land acquisition by force, collective punishment, or the permanent exclusion of an occupied population from decisions governing its territory.

Crucially, the Board of Peace was conceived, negotiated, and announced without the presence, knowledge, or consent of Palestinian political representatives, civil society, or affected communities. This exclusion alone renders the initiative invalid under international norms governing self-determination and participatory governance.

While the Board speaks abstractly of “development,” it has failed to address Gaza’s immediate humanitarian crisis — shortages of food, medicine, clean water, and access to education. Any initiative that prioritises luxury infrastructure and speculative investment while ignoring mass deprivation and humanitarian collapse is not a peace plan. It is a moral inversion.

II. The Business Model of Apartheid

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur, calls apartheid a “business model.” Her 2025 report to the UN Human Rights Council, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, exposes the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project.

The report documents how corporate entities in various sectors — arms manufacturers, tech firms, building and construction companies, extractive and service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities and charities — enable the denial of self-determination and other structural violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupation, annexation, and crimes of apartheid and genocide.

Colonial endeavours and their associated genocides have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector. Commercial interests have contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and lands — a mode of domination known as “colonial racial capitalism“. The same is true of Israeli colonisation of Palestinian lands, its expansion into the occupied Palestinian territory, and its institutionalisation of a regime of settler-colonial apartheid.

Early charter companies, granted broad State-like powers, gradually evolved into private “limited liability” corporations as intercolonial trade grew vital to European economies. Colonial powers continued to rely on these relationships to outsource, obscure, and avoid accountability for the dispossession and enslavement of Indigenous peoples and the expropriation of their resources. Today, some corporate conglomerates exceed the GDP of sovereign States, wielding more power — political, economic and discursive — than States themselves.

In the occupied Palestinian territory, building on decades of documented human rights violations and crimes, corporate engagement with any component of the occupation is connected with violations of jus cogens norms and international crimes. Where corporate entities continue their activities with Israel — with its economy, military, public and private sectors connected to the occupied Palestinian territory — they may be found to have knowingly contributed to:

· violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination;

· annexation of Palestinian territory, maintenance of an unlawful occupation and therefore the crime of aggression;

· crimes of apartheid and genocide.

The report specifically identifies the arms sector, including Elbit Systems, as a key enabler. Elbit has been involved in supplying the Israeli military with technology used in the occupation and has been linked to surveillance and weapons systems deployed in Gaza and the West Bank.

III. The Israeli Lobbying Scandal: AUKUS and the $7 Billion Deal

In November 2025, following a cyberattack on Israeli defence industries, confidential blueprints and technical details of new infantry vehicles ordered by Australia in a $7 billion contract from Israeli company Elbit Systems were exposed. The Australian Defence Force was also reviewing the purchase of Spike NLOS anti-tank missiles from the same Israeli company.

Prior to this cyber incident, due to Israel’s brutal aggression in Gaza, the Australian Army’s collaboration with this Israeli company had already faced widespread domestic criticism. However, the Defence Minister repeatedly defended the partnership, stating: “We will never apologise for acquiring the best possible equipment for the Australian Defence Force”.

This is the same company that, according to the UN report, is deeply embedded in the economy of occupation and genocide. Australian taxpayer dollars are flowing directly to a corporation that enables and profits from Palestinian erasure.

IV. The Normalisation of Apartheid: Real Estate Roadshows in London, Montreal, and New York

In recent weeks, a series of “Great Israeli Real Estate” events have taken place in New York, Montreal, and London. These are not small gatherings. They are professionally organised exhibitions, complete with websites, marketing materials, and invitations extended to diaspora communities.

The events openly advertised properties in Gush Etzion — a cluster of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, located south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal. The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits an occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

The event website allowed prospective attendees to register interest by ticking a box next to Gush Etzion. After pressure from MPs and campaigners, the reference was removed — but previous editions of the event in London had openly advertised homes in Gush Etzion and Ma’ale Adumim, another illegal settlement. Photos from those earlier events show properties in illegal settlements being marketed alongside properties inside Israel proper, with no distinction.

In the UK, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper was pressed by MPs from all parties. She refused to ban the event outright but warned businesses and charities against “associating themselves with potential breaches of international law”. She said the government would “pursue any issue that we can around anything that might be a breach of the law”. She also announced sanctions against six entities and one individual involved in settler violence in the West Bank, coordinated with Australia, Canada, France, and Norway.

But the sanctions target violence, not the settlement enterprise itself. The real estate roadshow — the marketing of stolen land to diaspora investors — continues.

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani opposed the event. A spokesperson said: “Mayor Mamdani is deeply opposed to the real estate expo this evening that includes the promotion of the sale of land in settlements in the Occupied West Bank. These settlements are illegal under international law and deeply tied to the ongoing displacement of Palestinians“. Protesters clashed with police. The event went ahead.

V. The Expansion to Lebanon: Real Estate as a Political Tool

The “Greater Israel” project is not limited to the West Bank.

Israeli real estate companies are now advertising new settlement construction projects in southern Lebanon. The ads, published on social media, target Israeli settlers, enticing them to buy homes in the “promised land.” One ad reads: “It’s time for a house in Lebanon!”

The ads are directed specifically at reserve officers — suggesting that Israel is trying to create a personal stake for soldiers fighting in Lebanon. As one analysis notes, “the use of real estate is a political tool to create facts on the ground that will make any future negotiations regarding sovereignty over these territories difficult”.

The group behind the campaign, Uri Tzafon (“Awaken North”), has sent drones and balloons into southern Lebanon carrying eviction notices to residents. The notices declare that the land “belongs to the Jewish people” and that residents “are required to evacuate immediately”.

The Jerusalem Post published an article in September 2024 titled “Is Lebanon part of Israel’s promised territory?” After outrage, the article was removed — but the question had already been asked.

The map of “Greater Israel” circulated by far‑right elements includes the occupied Palestinian territories, Gaza, the West Bank, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and even parts of Turkey. According to one interpretation of Jewish doctrine, these territories must be “invaded and seized“.

The Houthis in Yemen have explicitly cited the “Greater Israel” project as justification for their attacks on Israel. Whether one accepts their framing or not, the fact that the project is cited by adversaries as a casus belli indicates that it is not a secret.

This is not a conspiracy theory. This is a documented campaign.

VI. The Integration of Israeli and US Military Forces

The United States and Israel have launched formal talks on a new security cooperation framework to replace the current ten-year memorandum of understanding, which is set to expire in 2028. The new framework “is designed to strengthen the IDF’s qualitative military edge through expanded joint investment in research, development and co-production, deepen the US-Israel partnership demonstrated during the 2026 US-Israeli campaign against Iran (Operation Roaring Lion), and gradually transition from aid to a completely reciprocal partnership”.

The last MOU, a 10-year deal signed in 2016, granted Israel $3.8 billion per year in military aid. The new framework will deepen integration, not reduce it.

Separately, Israel’s Minister of Defense has signed a directive to produce a “special document in cooperation with US Central Command” for “confronting the challenges to stability and security in the Middle East, with a focus on the Iranian threat”. This document is to be signed by the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Israeli Chief of Staff.

VII. The Integration of US Military into Australian Defence Forces

Australia’s integration with US military forces is advancing at an unprecedented pace. The AUKUS exemptions under the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) now permit the free transfer of defence articles and services among the physical territories of Australia, the UK, and the US without individual licences. Over 700 Australian and UK entities are already listed as “Authorised Users”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has been explicit: “We are doing more in terms of our cooperation with the United States across every domain, including space and cyber, than we really have at any point in terms of the Australian continent since the end of the Second World War, and that is growing”.

“We will see an increasing American military footprint on our continent over the course of the next few years,” Marles said. He noted that “institutionally we have the Deputy Commanders in the US Navy in the Pacific, US Army in the Pacific, US Air Force in the Pacific, as Australians“. Australian senior officers are embedded in US Indo-Pacific Command.

The AUKUS partners also have a shared strategic interest in critical minerals, with the pact uniquely positioned to counter Chinese supply chain coercion. Australia possesses the world’s second-largest reserves of bauxite (from which gallium is extracted) and produces 52 percent of the global supply of lithium. Yet much of this material is still sent to China for processing — a weak link in supply chain security.

VIII. The Israeli Spying Scandal and Removal of Technical Systems

We observe the history of Israeli spying on Australian defence forces. In the early 2000s, Australian defence facilities discovered that certain technical systems purchased from Israel had been compromised. The specific details remain classified, but subsequent investigations led to the removal of Israeli-supplied systems from sensitive Australian defence assets.

The 2025 Elbit Systems cyberattack and the exposure of Redback vehicle blueprints is a continuation of this pattern. The Australian government continues to contract with Elbit despite documented security concerns and widespread criticism of the company’s role in the occupation.

IX. Pauline Hanson: One Nation and the Israeli Flag

In August 2021, Senator Pauline Hanson wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the Israeli flag onto the floor of the Australian Senate, declaring: “In this very trying time for Israel, I’d like to show my support“. This was a deliberate political statement, not a casual gesture.

Hanson has also proposed that permanent residents in Australia should be required to sell their houses to increase housing stock for Australians. The connection between these two positions — support for Israel and hostility to migrants — is not coincidental. Both are expressions of a nationalist, exclusionary ideology.

X. The Silencing of Criticism

The same week the real estate roadshow was advertised, the UK government announced new “anti‑antisemitism” measures. The conflation is not accidental.

Criticism of Israel is routinely labelled antisemitic. Legitimate political dissent is criminalised. The effect is to protect the settlement enterprise from scrutiny.

As the Iranian diplomat warned, the “Greater Israel” project poses dangers not only to neighbouring countries but to Europe as well. The same logic that justifies the displacement of Palestinians can be turned against any population that stands in the way.

This is not a defence of Iran. It is an observation of pattern.

XI. A Pattern Without Borders: “This Could Happen to You”

What connects these threads? A global campaign to normalise apartheid — not as a historical aberration, but as a business model.

· The Board of Peace rebrands ethnic cleansing as “development.”

· The real estate roadshow markets stolen land as “investment opportunities.”

· The weapons trade profits from the technology of occupation and genocide.

· AUKUS integrates Australia’s defence forces into a US-led military machine that facilitates extraction and control.

· The campaign to silence criticism of Israel — through “anti-antisemitism” laws, through media censorship, through political intimidation — protects the entire edifice.

This is not a conspiracy. It is a system.

And the system — like all systems built on extraction and exclusion — is fragile.

Not because it will be overthrown. Because it will collapse.

Under the weight of its own contradictions. Under the pressure of its own violence. Under the truth.

The history of the treatment of minorities — the Irish by the British, the Scots by the British, the Huguenots by the French, the Jews by Nazi Germany — shows that apartheid is not restricted to colour. The same logic of exclusion, the same justification of violence, the same normalisation of cruelty — can be turned against any population.

This could happen to you.

The only defence is to see the pattern. To name it. To resist it.

Not with violence. With clarity.

XII. What This Has to Do With the Rest of Us

We cannot stop the real estate roadshow. We cannot ban the event. We cannot sanction the banks.

We can name the pattern. We can trace the connection between the property exhibition in London and the displacement of families in the West Bank, the settlement campaign in Lebanon, the violence in Gaza, the integration of military forces, the extraction of Australian resources, the silencing of criticism.

Andrew Klein

References

1. Francesca Albanese, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide: Corporate Complicity in Sustaining the Settler-Colonial Project. UN Human Rights Council, 2025.

2. ICTS. (2024). The “Greater Israel” Project: An Escalating Threat to Lebanese Sovereignty.

3. Al Jazeera. (2025). Sanctions over attacks on Palestinians.

4. Middle East Monitor. (2025). UK Foreign Secretary refuses to ban ‘Greater Israel’ real estate event in London.

5. Mondoweiss. (2025). Zohran Mamdani calls for NYC to cancel ‘Greater Israel’ real estate event.

6. Mondoweiss. (2025). Advert for settlements in occupied Golan appears in Brooklyn publication.

7. The Cradle. (2025). Houthis: ‘Greater Israel’ project main motivation behind support to Gaza.

8. Al Jazeera. (2025). US and Israel launch formal talks on new security cooperation framework.

9. The Times of Israel. (2025). Israeli defense minister signs directive to prepare joint military document with US Central Command.

10. Australian Department of Defence. (2024). AUKUS Defence Trade Cooperation Exemption from US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

11. Australian Financial Review. (2025). Defence Minister Richard Marles’s speech at ASPI.

12. Breaking Defense. (2025). AUKUS partners have a ‘shared strategic interest’ in critical minerals.

13. Becker, R. (2025). Israeli firm’s $7 billion defence contract under fire. The Age.

14. 7News. (2021). ‘I think it’s time to do something’: Hanson wears Israeli flag into Senate.

15. The Guardian. (2026). Greater Israel real estate event in London to proceed despite government warnings.

16. Haaretz. (2024). This Lebanese Christian Sect Is Terrified of Israel’s ‘Greater Israel’ Plan.

17. Turkiye Today. (2025). Middle East on brink as ‘Greater Israel’ plan gains momentum, Iran warns.

18. The New Arab. (2025). Israeli real estate firm advertises projects in southern Lebanon.

19. Iran Diplomacy. (2025). Iran’s warning over ‘Greater Israel’ danger.

20. Palestine Solidarity Campaign. (2025). London property fair promoting illegal settlement homes must be stopped.

” The pattern is visible to those who look. Do not look away.”