By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer
On February 4, the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies held a lecture on the future of the Gaza Strip. The talk highlighted the background of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the origins of the Palestinian struggle. The talk also discussed recent developments, such as US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal for the region and his Board of Peace, which aims to control the territory.
The lecture’s keynote speaker was Mouin Rabbani, a researcher who specializes in the Middle East and Palestine. SFU International Studies professor Dr. Tamir Moustafa also moderated discussions at the lecture.
Rabbani opened his talk by pointing out that the creation and modern demographics of the Gaza Strip were a modern artificial invention. This is because the territory was where people displaced by the Nakba — the 1948 ethnic cleansing of at least 750,000 Palestinians by Israel — were corralled. Israel has repeatedly aimed to delegitimize and destabilize an independent Palestinian authority and land belonging to it since the time of the Nakba. Citing scholar Dr. Sara Roy, Rabbani highlighted that, following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel pursued a policy of “de-development” in the Gaza Strip — an act to systematically destroy a particular region’s economy to render it impossible to compete in the global market.
The ambition to depopulate the Gaza Strip never quite disappeared throughout Israeli history, and that the Israeli far-right espoused it for decades.
— Mouin Rabbani, policy analyst, Middle East Council on Global Affairs nonresident senior fellow
Rabbani argued the October 7 attacks in 2023 served as a catalyst to bring these ideas into the mainstream of Israeli political thought, helped by the indifference of many Arab nations to intervene.
According to Rabbani, Trump’s decision to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Israel in 2025 was due to Israel failing to achieve a quick military victory in the region and growing internal pressure. The agreement was unveiled in September 2025 and called the 20-point peace plan. The deal called for the deradicalization of Gaza, forbade militant organizations like Hamas from participating in the area’s future, and emphasized providing humanitarian aid in Gaza, among other things.
Article 9 of their agreement focuses on the redevelopment of the Gaza Strip. The agreement stated that a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” would temporarily govern under the supervision of the Board of Peace. The Board has pledged $7 billion US in redevelopment aid to the Gaza Strip. However, it has faced concerns over potential conflicts with the United Nations’ (UN) role in international relations. UN experts “warned that key elements of the plan are deeply inconsistent with fundamental rules of international law and the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice that demand Israel ends its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory.” In a UN press release, they said, “Imposing an immediate peace at any price, regardless of or brazenly against law and justice, is a recipe for further injustice, future violence, and instability.”
Rabbani condemned the peace plan, saying that it failed to include “Palestinian rights to self-determination, including sovereignty and statehood, and in return, accountability for any of the limitless crimes committed by Israel during the Gaza genocide.” Many Palestinians share these concerns, as the plan does not guarantee political autonomy.
Given growing concerns in international circles that the Board is merely a front to replace the UN, Rabbani called the endorsement of the Board by the United Nations Security Council “absolutely bizarre.”
