Netanyahu\u2019s participation, despite an ICC warrant seeking his arrest for war crimes in Gaza, will add to concerns over the objectivity of the board.<\/p>\n
By Al Jazeera staff and News Agencies<\/p>\n
Published On 21 Jan 202621 Jan 2026<\/p>\n
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Israel\u2019s \u200dPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u2060has accepted an invitation from United States \u200bPresident Donald \u200dTrump to join the \u201cboard of \u2060peace<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n The Israeli leader\u2019s office announced on social media on Wednesday that Netanyahu is to join the initiative, despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) having issued a warrant for his arrest for war crimes<\/a> in Gaza.<\/p>\n The \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d was unveiled as part of phase two<\/a> of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas to end Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n Numerous world leaders have been invited to join the body, which Trump envisages would oversee \u201cgovernance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilisation\u201d in the enclave.<\/p>\n However, the participation of Netanyahu will add to concerns over the objectivity of the board, which Trump will lead and control its lineup.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s acceptance of a place on the board comes despite his office having earlier criticised the makeup of the executive committee, which includes Israel\u2019s regional rival, Turkiye.<\/p>\n Unilateral responsibility<\/p>\n Netanyahu is not the only invitee wanted by the ICC for war crimes.\u00a0Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited to join the board<\/a> on Monday, despite being indicted over Russia\u2019s nearly four-year war on Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n The Kremlin said it was seeking to \u201cclarify all the nuances\u201d of the offer with Washington, without elaborating on whether Putin was inclined to join.<\/p>\n Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin ally, was also reportedly invited to join the group by Trump.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s office had previously said the executive committee was not coordinated with the Israeli government and \u201cis contrary to its policy\u201d, without clarifying its objections.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has criticised the board and called for Israel to take unilateral responsibility for Gaza\u2019s future.<\/p>\n Board members include the UAE, Morocco, Vietnam, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Argentina. Others, including the United Kingdom and the executive arm of the European Union, say they have received invitations but have not yet responded.<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear how many or which other leaders would receive invitations.<\/p>\n The executive board\u2019s members include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Trump\u2019s deputy national security adviser, Robert Gabriel.<\/p>\n The White House also announced the members of another board, the Gaza Executive Board, which, according to the ceasefire, will be in charge of implementing the tough second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s participation, despite an ICC warrant seeking his arrest for war crimes in Gaza, will add to concerns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-427360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}