London, November 19th 2025

Statement: British Palestinian Committee responds to the UN Security Council Resolution 2803 on Gaza

On Monday 17 November 2025, the UN Security Council voted in favour of US-backed Resolution 2803, establishing an “International Stabilisation Force” (ISF) in Gaza under a “Board of Peace” headed by US President Donald Trump and reportedly including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The resolution passed with 13 votes in favour, including the UK, and abstentions from Russia and China. The British Palestinian Committee (BPC) unequivocally condemns the Council’s adoption of this US-backed resolution. Marketed as a “pathway to peace”, it is in reality a political project by Western governments to entrench Western control over Gaza while denying Palestinians any meaningful form of sovereignty or political agency. It comes at the expense of the Palestinian people in Gaza who have endured immeasurable suffering after Israel’s two-year genocidal onslaught.

By advancing Trump’s so-called “20-point plan”, the resolution risks deepening the structures of domination rather than enabling the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. It entrenches the further fragmentation of the Palestinian people and partition of Palestinian land. It imposes an international system of “guardianship” over Gaza that echoes the logic and structures of past colonial mandates. This arrangement does not end occupation, it institutionalises it. The proposed ISF functions as a renewed mechanism of Israeli control, implemented through international intermediaries and designed to sustain a regime of apartheid, siege, and military domination under a rebranded administrative framework. This deeply unlawful plan endorses a system of oppression that Palestinians have resisted for generations.

The immediate priority for the international community must be to uphold the ceasefire, ensure that Israeli forces commit no further violations, and advance urgent accountability measures. Such accountability requires political courage: holding Israel – and the states enabling its actions – responsible for grave breaches of international law, including through lawful, targeted sanctions. These should begin with comprehensive military, energy, and trade embargoes until Israel ends its illegal military occupation over all Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian land, dismantles its apartheid structures, and complies with its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. At the same time, humanitarian needs must never be instrumentalised or reduced to tools of political leverage. There must be an immediate and sustained opening of all crossings, accompanied by the full mobilisation of resources through the UN and its agencies, foremost among them UNRWA, to ensure that aid reaches civilians swiftly, safely, and without obstruction. Access to humanitarian aid, relief for devastated communities, and the unrestricted opening of all crossings are not concessions – they are fundamental rights of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

We call on the British Government urgently to reconsider and withdraw its support for Resolution 2803 in light of clear and consistent warnings from Palestinians in Gaza and across Palestinian civil society. Any legitimate political process must be firmly grounded in international law. Reconstruction in Gaza must be Palestinian-led. For decades, and especially throughout the past two years of mass atrocity and genocide, civil society and community networks in Gaza have been the primary responders, caregivers, and defenders of life. They are the rightful leaders and experts who must determine the future of their society and guide its rebuilding. This plan cannot be imposed from abroad by international actors, particularly those with long and violent histories of regional military intervention and corruption. The refusal to provide Palestinians with any genuine path to freedom, justice, or statehood is consistent with the history of US policy and Britain’s historic role in the dispossession of the Palestinian people.

The ongoing catastrophe in Gaza has been sponsored and facilitated by the political, military, and financial support of Western states, including Britain, whose decades-long complicity in Israel’s system of apartheid and occupation is well documented. By pursuing this plan, the US and Israel aim to achieve through political design what military onslaught has so far failed to secure: the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. It projects a future in which Palestinians are confined to heavily controlled zones overseen by the ISF and ultimately by Israel, under conditions incompatible with freedom, dignity, or self-determination. The British Palestinian Committee stands firmly against this renewed mandate over Palestinian life and land. Peace cannot be imposed from above, it must be grounded in justice, accountability, and the full realisation of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights - the right to return to Palestinian land foremount among them.

The British Palestinian Committee is an independent organisation of British Palestinians in leading or representative positions across major Palestine-related organisations and constituencies in the UK.

To download the full statement, please click here.

For more information or media enquiries: info@britpalcommittee.co.uk