On the road from East Jerusalem to Bethlehem, in the occupied Palestinian territory, huge billboards send a message to Joe Biden: “Mr. President, this is apartheid,” read in capital letters. After having met with the Israeli Prime Minister, Yaïr Lapid, the American president went, this Friday, July 15, to the meeting of the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Bethlehem, thus acknowledging the restoration of links between the two administrations. Despite a series of announcements supposed to mark his interest in the Palestinian question, Joe Biden provided a minimum diplomatic service, endorsing the status quo between Israel and Palestine.
Prior to his visit, several requests had been presented by the Palestinian Authority, reiterated by Mahmoud Abbas during the press conference following the meeting: the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from the American list terrorist organizations, the reopening of the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington, as well as the restoration of American financial aid to the PLO.
Two-State Solution
But above all, the Palestinian leader called for more efforts to achieve the establishment of a Palestinian state within the framework of the two-state solution, while recent years have been marked by the multiplication of settlements in the West Bank. “Isn’t it time for the occupation to end, and for our steadfast people to win their freedom and independence again? », he said at the press conference.
Despite the warm handshakes exchanged by the two men, most of these requests have remained unheeded, Joe Biden having circumscribed his commitment to the deployment of economic aid for Palestine. Earlier in the day, during a visit to the East Jerusalem hospital, he announced $100 million in aid to the hospital network, while remaining silent on house demolitions against Palestinians in the area. district of Sheikh Jarrah, or on the particularly increased police repression against Palestinians living in the occupied part of the city.
1967 borders
In another register, he announced a project to switch, in 2021, the Internet connection on wireless networks in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to 4G. “To be really honest, we don’t really need 4G. What we need is for a fourth generation of Palestinians not to live under military occupation”reacted Sam Bahour, an influential businessman from the occupied West Bank in the lines of the Lebanese daily The Orient-The Day.
If Joe Biden nevertheless pleaded for light to be shed on the circumstances of the death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who died while covering a police operation in Jenin, and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state “along the borders of 1967”he nevertheless indicated that the conditions were not met at this stage to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Despite his commitment, during the 2021 presidential campaign, to pursuing a foreign policy centered on human rights and multilateralism, Joe Biden therefore contented himself with recalling “the viaticum of the two-state solution in principle – a Jewish state and a Palestinian state – but on an increasingly distant horizon in view of reality, which does not lead him to make sensational announcements on the matter” underlines David Rigoulet-Roze, of the Institute of international and strategic relations (Iris).
Regional defense architecture
Moreover, continues the researcher, “the radical break with the policy followed by Donald Trump should be qualified insofar as Joe Biden welcomed the Abraham Accords signed on September 14, 2020. He did not return to the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem which has become effective since May 14, 2018, nor on the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights recognized by Donald Trump’s presidential decree on March 25, 2019. There is therefore something like a default validation of what was endorsed by his predecessor “.
The visit of the American president to Bethlehem can therefore appear as symbolic. Especially since the main objective of his trip to this region is “the strategic issue vis-à-vis what is perceived as the Iranian threat, with, in hollow the project being developed for a regional defense architecture, in particular anti-ballistic, of which Israel would be an integral part”, raises David Rigoulet-Roze. Which relegates, mechanically, the Palestinian question to the background.