The Anatomy of a Diplomatic Laundering Device

At a time when Pakistan is confronting a wave of terrorism and burying its martyrs, it simply cannot afford any ambiguity in foreign policy. States derive strength from clarity of principle, policy, and consequence. Pakistan’s decision to sign onto the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) is, therefore, not a routine diplomatic commitment. 

In its latest report, Human Rights Watch has renewed its charge that “Israel has carried out crimes against humanity, genocide, and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.” The Gaza War has seen 72,000 people killed, apart from an estimated 10,000 still buried under the rubble. The fatalities include 22,000 children, one child each hour of this genocide.

16th-century Europe was ruled by the doctrine of the divine right of kings that sanctified political absolutism. Violence was not restrained but legitimized. Accountability was heresy, and justice was shunned as an obstacle to stability. The danger of the Gaza Board of Peace lies not in the peace it offers but in the absolution it delivers.

The BoP is not a peace mechanism. It is a political laundering device that elevates Netanyahu, under investigation for war crimes, into more than a stakeholder in Gaza’s future. The architect of genocide is transformed from a criminal into an overlord of Gaza. This erases the foundational distinction of international law between the occupier and the occupied and that of the perpetrator and the victim. This is a precedent fraught with danger and injustice.

A genuine peace process begins with the admission of wrong, accountability of the perpetrator, and restoration of political agency to the victims. The BoP sanitizes the devastation and institutionalizes it. Gaza’s future is up for grabs without the Gazans, while Palestine’s self-determination is deferred indefinitely. This is evident from the mindset. In a meeting in Jerusalem with the US envoy Steve Witkoff........

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