During the US President Joe Biden’s visit to occupied Palestine on Tuesday he signed a joint agreement for the strategic partnership with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the ‘Jerusalem Declaration.’
The declaration focuses on Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security maintaining Tel Aviv’s qualitative military superiority and not allowing Iran to possess a nuclear weapon. It also reiterates the steadfast commitment of the United States to preserve and strengthen Israel’s capability to deter its ‘enemies’ and to defend itself by itself against any ‘threat.’
This declaration gives Israel the green light to continue its brutality and violations against Palestinian people. The Palestinian factions consider the declaration to be an act of direct aggression against the Palestinian people and their rights denouncing the American bias towards Israel including the amount of military aid that has been provided.
While Biden condemned what he called “the deplorable series of terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens in recent months” he ignores the agonizing daily plight the Palestinians suffer from Israel underscoring American support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
Indeed Biden’s visit only brought more quandaries and offensives to Palestine. His divisive actions aggravate the rift rather than solving it empowering the occupation and abandoning Palestinians without the same rights to self-defense ensured to Israel by the United States’ allyship. He also rewarded and acquitted the occupation military in lieu of denouncing the daily killing of defenseless people or even decrying the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Some Palestinian researchers warn that the repercussions of the ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ would be in the interest of neither Palestinians nor Israel explaining that the US description of Israel an ‘an anchor of regional stability’ attempts to push the region towards the brink of a war in which the occupation would be a primary target.
Palestinian reaction
During Biden’s two-day visit to occupied Palestine the Palestinian territories witnessed protests and demonstrations in East Jerusalem West Bank cities and the Gaza Strip reacting to Biden’s visit and the US bias towards Israel. Protesters in Ramallah raised black flags and photos of the slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh calling for bringing the Israeli murderers to justice.
At a demonstration in Gaza City Palestinian factions categorically rejected the Jerusalem Declaration stating that Washington’s attempts to re-engineer the region by integrating the occupied entity will fail. They called for a strategic dialogue between the components of the Arab world that would lead to a political alliance that would protect the Al Aqsa Mosque and Palestinian rights stressing that “our Palestinian people will never again fall into the traps of illusion and the mirage of negotiations that struck the issue” assuring that the only choice to restore Palestinian rights is resisting the occupation.
Nehal Ju’aidi a researcher who participated in the protest pointed out that this visit’s primary purpose was to underscore and reaffirm the US administration’s commitment to Israeli security and forge alliances against the Russian and Iranian “threat”. She further noted that Biden continues what the former president Donald Trump started when he signed the “Deal of the Century” to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
Online several social media campaigns were launched expressing their anger towards the biased speech by Biden. Also a lot of social media activists countered Biden with “And you don’t need to be a Zionist to be a Jew”.
This statement from Biden affirming that Israel is a geo-political issue and the Jerusalem declaration are further evidence against those who still place reliance in the US administration’s seriousness about their role in ending the conflict.
– Wafa Aludaini is a Gaza-based journalist and activist. She contributed this article to the Palestinian Information Center.
