#Palestinians #economic #boost #substitute #peace
Ahead of Joe Biden’s first visit to Jerusalem as US President, Washington’s ambassador said his team would “bang tables” to urge Israeli officials to make concessions to the Palestinians.
But Ambassador Thomas Nides spoke of ensuring Palestinians have access to economic benefits like 4G internet, not putting American diplomatic power into reviving a peace process that has been dying since 2014.
Biden’s first Middle East tour since taking the White House last year begins in Israel on Wednesday, and he is expected to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
US-Palestine relations have improved under Biden after hitting an all-time low under his predecessor Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of the Israelis.
In addition to the promise of faster internet, the visit could also result in the US restoring funding to hospitals in Israel’s annexed East Jerusalem that have historically served the Palestinians.
But some Palestinians have said they are weary of US diplomacy, which they claim is prioritizing economic benefits over the core issues of the seven-decade conflict.
“It would be nice to have 4G,” said Mohammed Mostafa, a former deputy prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and former chief executive officer of Paltel, the largest telecommunications operator in the Palestinian territories.
“But it’s obviously not a substitute for solving bigger problems like Jerusalem, like sovereignty or freedom,” he told AFP.
“Israel believes that people will forget the bigger picture,” he added.
– Hamas expects “nothing” –
The 4G promise, highlighted by Ambassador Nides in an interview with the Times of Israel, would give Palestinian businesses an immediate boost, Mostafa said.
Palestinians are currently forced to either buy Israeli SIM cards or struggle with slower 3G connections.
“Israeli operators have a significant share of the Palestinian telecom and broadband market,” Mostafa said. “This would be a chance to give that back to Palestinian businesses.”
But “the Israelis think we’re going to give you 4G so you keep quiet about the other things,” Mostafa added. “We are interested, but we also want something bigger.”
Until July 1, Israel was led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a rightist opposed to the overarching Palestinian demand for a state of their own.
Bennett has adopted an approach known as “conflict shrinkage,” seeking to defuse tensions by improving economic opportunities in the West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas.
One of those key actions was to increase permits for Palestinians, including those from Gaza, to seek relatively lucrative work in Israel.
When asked about expectations for Biden’s visit, Hamas official Basem Naim said, “Nothing.”
Yair Lapid, Bennett’s successor as Israeli prime minister and centrist, supports a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict.
But he is only serving as acting leader ahead of November’s elections, so is seen as leaving little room for bold peace initiatives.
When Lapid visited Paris last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was “no alternative to resuming political dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Senior Israeli officials told AFP Lapid was “open” to meeting Abbas but not to launching a new peace initiative at the moment.
– “Throw money on the cast” –
In an opinion piece for the Washington Post over the weekend, Biden claimed that his administration restored about $500 million in support to the Palestinians after Trump cut funding.
But while Israeli authorities have promised to raise a sea of flags to welcome Biden to Jerusalem, there are few signs of ceremonial anticipation across the West Bank.
For Sam Bahour, a prominent Palestinian-American businessman in the West Bank, the indifference to Biden’s visit goes beyond recent fluctuations in Israeli governance.
“The Biden government has fallen into the Israeli trap — this trap fragmenting all Palestinian rights under international law and then using them as playing cards as if making concessions to the Palestinians,” he said.
Supporting Israeli initiatives in the West Bank is simply “throwing money at the occupation”.
Bahour said Palestinians could get by with slower internet, but not without statehood.
“We don’t need 4G,” he said. “We need the fourth generation of Palestinians who are not living under military occupation.”
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