President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace – the international body established to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction, on which the president serves as its lifelong chairman – created a draft resolution designed to grant its members broad legal immunity in the case of Palestinian deaths, The Guardian reported Saturday.
“It looks like an attempt to exempt the board, and all of its personnel, from accountability for potential legal violations,” said Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C., speaking with The Guardian.
The Board of Peace was announced by Trump in late 2025, officially established in January and endorsed by the United Nations to carry out its stated goal of overseeing Gaza’s reconstruction. However, according to a draft resolution obtained by The Guardian, its members are apparently considering pursuing a plan to shield them from legal accountability, with Trump exclusively granted the power under the draft to "waive someone's legal immunity,” the outlet reported.
“Several lawyers pointed to the specific risks associated with section 7 of the draft resolution, entitled ‘Third Party Liability/Claims,’ which lays out a system for the Board of Peace to consider and adjudicate any claims for ‘property loss or damage and for personal injury, illness or death’ arising from its work in Gaza,” The Guardian’s report reads.
In effect, the resolution was “basically saying there’s no external oversight, including applicable international law regarding occupation,” according to Noura Erakat, a professor at Rutgers New Brunswick, speaking with The Guardian.
The resolution would also serve as a tool for the Board of Peace to engage in “illegal confiscation of Palestinian property,” The Guardian reported, citing the final section of the draft agreement that states that the board “shall be provided, free of charge, public premises and facilities needed for the accomplishment of the missions in Gaza.”
The White House directed questions to the Board of Peace, which ultimately refuted The Guardian's characterization of the draft resolution.
"There is no operative resolution or immunity framework of the kind described in your questions… Any suggestion that this process is designed to create lawlessness or impunity is wrong, misleading and gets the issue entirely backwards," an official with the Board of Peace told The Guardian.