As President Joe Biden goes to the occupied west bank on Friday for an interview Palestinian He will have little to offer leaders apart from US funds aimed at buying calm.
He is expected to announce $316 million in financial support – about a third of which requires congressional approval – and a pledge by Israel to modernize wireless access for Palestinians.
But while Biden will reaffirm his support for an independent Palestinian state, there is no clear path to get there. The last round of serious peace talks collapsed more than a decade ago, with millions of Palestinians living under Israeli military rule.
Israel’s outgoing government has taken steps to improve economic conditions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. But Yair Lapid, the acting prime minister, has no mandate to lead peace negotiations, and the November 1 elections could bring to power a right-wing government opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Meanwhile, 86-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank and works with Israel on security issues, is more representative of the status quo than Palestinian aspirations.
His Fatah party lost an election and control of Gaza to the Islamic militant group Hamas more than 15 years ago. He canceled the first national elections since last year, blaming Israel as Fatah appeared headed for another crushing defeat. Polls over the past year have consistently indicated that nearly 80% of Palestinians want him to step down.
Biden conceded this week that while he supports a two-state solution, it will not happen “in the short term.” The US also appears to have accepted defeat in its more modest push to reopen a Jerusalem consulate to Palestinians, which was closed when President Donald Trump recognized the embattled city as Israel’s capital.
Palestinian leaders also fear being further undermined by the Abraham Accords, a diplomatic tool for Arab nations to normalize ties with Israel despite the ongoing occupation. Biden, who next travels to Saudi Arabia to attend a summit of Arab leaders, hopes to expand on this process, which began under Trump.
Hours before Biden was due to become the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation announced early Friday “the decision to open the Kingdom’s airspace to all airlines that meet the requirements of the… Fulfill authority overfly.”
It signaled the end of its long-standing ban on Israeli flights overflying its territory — a gradual move toward normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel that builds on the strong but informal ties the one-time enemies have forged in recent years because of their shared Concerns have developed over Iran’s growing influence in the region.
“President Biden welcomes and commends the historic decision by the Saudi Arabian leadership to open Saudi airspace without discrimination to all civilian airlines, a decision that includes flights to and from Israel,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement early Friday.
The Palestinians have received little mention in the past two days as Biden heaped praise on Israel and upheld it as a democracy that shares American values. At a press conference with Biden, Lapid called on the US civil rights movement to portray Israel as a bastion of freedom.
All of this smacks of hypocrisy to the Palestinians, who have endured 55 years of military occupation with no end in sight.
“The idea of shared values actually makes me sick,” said Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and political scientist. “I don’t think Israeli values are something people should strive for.”
Both Biden and Lapid said they support an eventual two-state solution to ensure Israel remains a Jewish-majority state. But Biden is expected to announce little beyond financial aid, including $201 million for the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
Biden proposed $100 million for hospitals in east Jerusalem that serve Palestinians, subject to congressional approval. Another $15 million is earmarked for humanitarian assistance, plus $7.2 million for programs to promote Israeli-Palestinian cooperation.
Often referred to as “economic peace,” his approach has limitations.
“You can’t buy a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former US State Department official. “You can’t, because that’s not what’s driving this conflict.”
That sentiment was evident Thursday in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians gathered to protest Biden. More protests were expected on Friday.
“Mr. Biden is trying to marginalize the Palestinian issue,” said Mustafa Barghouti, a veteran Palestinian activist. “When he doesn’t allow the Palestinians to have their rights, he’s helping Israel kill and end the very last chance for peace .”
At this point, the Palestinian goal of an independent state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip—lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War—seems further away than ever.
Israel is expanding its settlements in annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which are now home to about 700,000 Jewish settlers. The Palestinians see the settlements – many of which resemble sprawling suburbs – as the main obstacle to peace because they divide up the land on which a Palestinian state is to be built. Most of the world considers them illegal.
Military rule in the West Bank has sowed widespread despair and contributed to a recent spate of violence. A 15-year blockade of Gaza, which Israel says is necessary to contain Hamas, has helped fuel four devastating wars. Home to famous holy sites and the emotional focus of the conflict, Jerusalem is as volatile as ever.
Israel has its own grievances — including payments by the Palestinian Authority to the families of prisoners and slain attackers, which Israel says are an incitement to violence. The PA defends the payments as a form of welfare for those it sees as victims of the conflict.
It is unclear whether the abolition of the “martyrs’ fund” would advance the goal of statehood. Israel is dominated by nationalist and religious parties that oppose a Palestinian state and see the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people.
Prominent human rights groups have concluded that Israel’s seemingly permanent control over millions of Palestinians amounts to apartheid. One of those groups, Israel’s own B’Tselem, hung banners in the West Bank ahead of Biden’s visit.
Israel rejects the label as an attack on its very existence, although years ago two former Israeli prime ministers warned that their country would be viewed as such if it failed to secure a two-state agreement with the Palestinians. The United States also rejects the apartheid allegations.
Biden is also likely to see banners calling for justice for Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed in an Israeli military strike in the West Bank in May. Israel says she may have been hit by Palestinian gunfire, while investigations by The Associated Press and other media support Palestinian witnesses who say she was shot dead by Israeli forces.
The US says she was likely killed by Israeli forces but that it appeared to be unintentional, without saying how they reached those conclusions. This angered many Palestinians, including Abu Akleh’s family, who accused the US of helping Israel shirk responsibility for her death.
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Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario. Megerian reported from Washington. AP Writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed.
