Palestinians disappointed by Biden’s visit

(Bethlehem) The recent visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank by US President Joe Biden, who declared himself a “Zionist” upon his arrival, disappointed the Palestinians. Disillusioned, they criticize a lack of action by the Biden administration to resolve the conflict with the Jewish state.

“It’s like in the Trump years but with a smile,” a Palestinian official who requested anonymity told AFP, referring to the positions deemed pro-Israeli of the former American president.

Donald Trump had notably recognized the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and had moved the United States embassy there, a decision experienced as an affront on the Palestinian side and on which Joe Biden did not return.

Few were waiting for the 79-year-old president to relaunch the peace process, stalled since 2014.

Still, some Palestinian officials harbored timid hopes that Joe Biden would keep his campaign promise by announcing the reopening of the US consulate for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, closed by the Trump administration in 2019. Palestinians want to make the eastern part of Jerusalem, occupied since 1967 and annexed in 1980 by Israel, the capital of the state to which they aspire.

” Whiplash ”

Announcing the reopening of the consulate could have been a “boost” to relaunch peace negotiations, said another Palestinian official on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Biden certainly reiterated his support for the “two-state solution”, a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel. And during a press briefing with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem in the West Bank, he said there must be “a political horizon for the Palestinian people”.

“We will never give up working for peace,” he added.

But if Joe Biden pleaded for an “independent Palestinian state” with “territorial continuity”, he however affirmed that the conditions were not currently met to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

He offered no substantive plan on the question of the Israeli occupation and did not take a position on the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian territory that Israel has occupied since 1967. administration of former President Barack Obama, of which Joe Biden was the vice-president, deplore Palestinian officials.

Mr. Biden was content to meet with leaders from both camps, announcing financial aid to the Palestinians and a plan to deploy 4G in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory, ruled by Hamas Islamists and under blockade. Israeli.

” Crumbs ”

As soon as he arrived in Israel, Joe Biden declared “that it was not necessary to be a Jew to be a Zionist”, an unusual formula in the mouth of an American leader, despite the active support of the United States for the Jewish state since its creation in 1948.

“He arrives in Israel and calls himself a Zionist, then he comes to Palestine and refuses to talk about the fundamental issues of the conflict,” castigated one of the two Palestinian officials interviewed by AFP.

On Sunday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh denounced American inaction.

“If, as the American president said, the solution [à deux États] is currently out of reach, then there must be an immediate freeze on settlement construction, in accordance with international law and resolutions to preserve the right of the Palestinian people to their independent state,” Shtayyeh said.

For Tahani Mustafa, analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG), Joe Biden’s visit “leaves no indication that the situation of the Palestinian people has a place on the agenda of his administration”.

For Palestinians hoping Washington can push Israel into concessions, seeing Joe Biden’s delegation fly to Saudi Arabia on Friday after a brief meeting with Mahmoud Abbas was disappointing.

“As usual, we only have crumbs left,” Issa Abu Ayash, a Palestinian from Bethlehem, told AFP on Friday as he watched images of the presidential motorcade heading for the airport on television. “We are so weak here.”