As the international community stands by as the Trump administration implements the inherently unlawful 20-point plan, analysed in Part III of Al-Haq’s Trump Trilogy, Al-Haq draws the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ attention to irreparable harm posed by the exploitation of Palestinian natural resources and the imposition of foreign-led governance frameworks. The submission outlines the manner in which this latest neocolonial, capitalist venture by the United States (US) seeks to cement Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime and exacerbates the vulnerability of the indigenous Palestinian people.

Since Israel’s unlawful occupation of the entirety of historic Palestine in 1967, Palestinians have been denied sovereignty over their natural resources. Despite the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) being rich in oil, gas, and shale oil, Israel has consistently obstructed Palestinian access to and development of these resources, deliberately stunting economic growth and manufacturing dependence on the energy sources it unlawfully appropriates. This calculated exploitation has transformed Palestinian energy dependence into a tool of domination and private profit, in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

Israel’s annexation of Palestine’s maritime space through a lethal naval blockade and the occupation of the Palestinian continental shelf has further stripped Palestinians of their livelihoods and means of survival. Such conduct amounts to grave breaches of the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, yet continues with impunity. International corporations and third States, including European Union members bound by obligations to promote compliance with international humanitarian law, are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law, having concluded agreements that directly fund and legitimise Israel’s pillaging and unlawful exploitation of Palestine’s resources.

Recent US intervention, set against the backdrop of Israel’s wholesale destruction of the Gaza Strip and genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, have abandoned even the pretence of diplomacy in favour of profit-driven, technocratic governance schemes that internationalise and entrench Israeli control. The 20-point plan, whose implementation is sure to be guided by the terms of the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation (GREAT) Trust, reframes the urgent need to end Israel’s genocide, destruction, siege and unlawful occupation of Palestine as an economic opportunity, reducing Gaza and the Palestinian people to assets for exploitation within a neoliberal, free-market economy framework. These plans envision the extraction of gas and other natural resources, the transformation of Gaza into a “riviera”, and the prioritisation of foreign investment, all while denying Palestinians justice and sovereignty.

Such frameworks seek to normalise perpetual foreign occupation and legitimise Israel’s ongoing crimes by substituting accountability with investment for private profit. By placing Gaza under externally appointed bodies empowered to control funding, property, and development priorities, these initiatives violate the fundamental right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and contravene fundamental provisions of international humanitarian law. Specifically, Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits any agreement which deprives a protected population of its rights under international law. Far from enabling recovery or sovereignty, they institutionalise a system of dependency, engineered vulnerability, and economic subjugation.

Finally, Al-Haq stresses that Palestine is not in a post-conflict situation but remains under unlawful occupation, marked by ongoing genocide, escalating annexation, blockade, and apartheid. Any attempt to impose foreign governance or exploit Palestinian natural resources under the guise of peace and reconstruction serves only to protect Israel’s impunity and advance its settler-colonial ambitions along with the capitalist, imperial interests of its allies. International law does not permit the extinguishment of Palestinian rights nor the abandonment of third-State obligations. The international community must be clear and united in its rejection of the 20-point plan, and UN Security Council Resolution 2803, as well as any subsequent schemes that seek to profit from the erasure of the Palestinian people. States must uphold their binding legal obligation to prevent and punish genocide, ensure respect for international humanitarian law, end Israel’s unlawful occupation, and respect and vindicate the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and sovereignty over their ancestral land and resources.