'Board of Peace' debut sparks fears for Gaza’s future

The first official "Board of Peace" meeting for Gaza on Thursday drew mixed reactions online, after several announcements and policy signals prompted frustration across social media.

In Washington, DC, US President Donald Trump convened the inaugural session of his proposed Board of Peace for Gaza, an initiative framed within the 20-point ceasefire plan that took effect on 10 October and was later ratified in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January.

Trump is set to serve as the board’s chairman for life.

During the meeting at the newly renamed Donald J Trump Institute for Peace, several pledges and policy directions were outlined, including a reported $7bn commitment from nine countries towards relief efforts in Gaza.

Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, the man appointed to oversee the intended demilitarisation of Gaza, said police recruitment in Gaza is already underway, with 2,000 Palestinians enlisted already. Reconstruction will not begin until Hamas is fully disarmed. 

A particularly controversial announcement was that the US would commit an additional $10bn in taxpayer funding to the Board of Peace's broader operations, not solely to Gaza-focused efforts.

The proposal sparked immediate criticism online, with lawmakers and observers pointing out that federal spending of this scale would ordinarily require approval from Congress. Multiple members of Congress took to X, calling the move unlawful.

“The ‘Board of Bullshit’ is not a US government owned organization. It is a private endeavor personally run by Trump as a US citizen NOT as the president,” one social media user posted on X. “He cannot just take tax payer money from the Treasury as if it is his personal piggy bank. This is outrageous behavior and should be investigated immediately.” 

Trump is giving himself $10 billion of our tax payer dollars in a slush fund that he controls. This is the biggest, most large scale theft in human history. https://t.co/Q1qojiThxz

— Tim (@trouble_man90) February 19, 2026

"The us govt is a slush fund for the pedophilic elite from finance capital, crypto hucksters and the MIC. the state functions must be seized back & completely transformed to reflect the needs of the working class," political commentator Hasan Piker posted on X.

Accusations that Trump and his elite business connections could use Gaza’s reconstruction as a vehicle for profit also emerged at several points during the meeting.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, took to the stage as well, where he stated that no one at the meeting would “personally” be profiting from this. Many social media users said the word “personally” was misleading. Kushner has no official role in the US government, but has been called a volunteer by press secretary Karoline Leavitt. 

“We have shell companies for that” https://t.co/xviIfzCzMt

— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) February 19, 2026

Earlier this year, the former real estate developer presented his vision of the “New Gaza” at the World Economic Forum, which featured an AI mock-up of skyscrapers and coastal resorts. 

Billionaire CEO of Apollo Global Management Marc Rowan also raised red flags when he said that Gaza's "coastline alone is 50B dollars of value alone on a conservative basis” and that it “just needs to be unlocked and financed". 

In addition to criticism of billionaires seeking to profit from Gaza’s reconstruction, social media users also condemned what they described as attempts to whitewash Israel’s role in the devastation in Gaza, where over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in what has been deemed a genocide by the United Nations. 

Tony Blair, for example, blamed the crisis in Gaza not on Israel’s occupation or record-breaking destruction of the strip, but on "extremism" and "corruption" in Gaza’s governance. 

The former British prime minister said, "Gaza's governance has been characterised by extremism, corruption, ineffective institutions and the complete absence of a route to prosperity for the Gazan people".

"Extraordinary and disgraceful to present Gaza as an issue of poor governance not one of protracted Israelioccupation of 58 years, of forced displacement (70% refugees) and now genocide," one social media user posted on X. 

Unmitigated flattery

Another point of contention was the stream of glowing remarks from certain world leaders, which critics on social media described as overly flattering towards Trump.

"No greater encapsulation of what America wants than this first Board of Peace meeting. The UN puts every country on par with one another," journalist Seamus Malek posted on X. "Here, nations are physically centered around Trump himself, their only purpose when speaking is to praise America and America alone."

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif drew particular criticism after referring to Trump as the “saviour of South Asia”.

This servile cultural mentality needs to be examined. They put Imran Khan in jail for declining to do this. https://t.co/eQDrTZ5knk

— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) February 19, 2026

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev even presented an award to Trump for his efforts in assembling the board, which figures like journalist Mehdi Hassan said was "beyond parody". 

Other peculiar things that happened include Trump falling asleep during world leaders’ speeches, the YMCA song playing during a group photo, and the participation of the international football body Fifa, which has pledged to raise $75m for sports-related projects in Gaza.

The general consensus of those who are apprehensive about the Board of Peace - whose charter makes no mention of  "Gaza" or "Palestinian" - is that the future of Gaza is in the hands of those who do not have the Palestinians' best interests at heart. 

Social media users also noted that the Palestinian representative to the board, Ali Shaath, was seated on stage without a title displayed on his chair, unlike other country representatives.

Palestinian journalist in Gaza, Motasem Dalloul, said that from his point of view, everything that was mentioned was to the benefit of Israel. 

"Unfortunately, they discussed everything in the interest of the Israeli occupation, and mentioned nothing about ending Israeli -internationally backed- siege on Gaza, entry of food, medicine and other essential stuff into Gaza, or the reconstruction of Gaza," Dalloul wrote in a post on X. "Yes, they mentioned the reconstruction, but in the context of blackmailing us."