Protests Await Biden in Upcoming Ramallah Visit for ‘Ignoring the Palestinian Issue’

Biden will make the first visit of his presidency to the Middle East later this week, stopping in Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia to discuss a list of American foreign policy priorities. However, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank reportedly feels it isn’t among those priorities, and that the Palestinian cause has suffered as a result.

When Biden stops in the West Bank’s administrative center of Ramallah on Thursday to meet with PNA President Mahmoud Abbas, there will be Palestinian protesters waiting to tell him that ignoring their interests further damages regional stability and security.

“The Palestinian issue is not at the top of Biden’s agenda,” a PNA official told the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. “Ignoring the Palestinian issue will only increase tensions and undermine security and stability in the region.”

“We are fed up with empty promises,” the official added. “If the Americans continue to ignore our demands, the situation will further deteriorate. We want the Palestinian cause to return to the center of the world’s attention.”

Under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, the US pivoted sharply in its relationship with Israel and the Palestinians, supporting Israel’s long-standing claim that Jerusalem is its capital as well as its annexation of the Golan Heights. Several US-orchestrated peace deals between Israel and Arab states, dubbed the “Abraham Accords,” are credited with saving parts of the West Bank from being annexed by Israel, but the Palestinians have criticized the accords as selling out their cause by effectively shredding any possibility of a two-state solution.

Since taking office in 2021, Biden has reaffirmed the US’ commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state as agreed in the 1994 Oslo Accords, but taken no practical steps toward unringing the bell of Trump’s actions. The PNA has demanded Biden reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem, which served as Washington’s de facto embassy to the Palestinians, and remove the Palestine Liberation Organization from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The official who spoke with the Jerusalem Post also said Abbas would ask Biden at their meeting to increase his pressure on Israel “to halt all unilateral measures, including settlement construction.”

In May, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a right-wing figure who favors annexation of the West Bank and the expulsion of Palestinians, compelled his hodgepodge coalition government to go forward with construction plans for thousands of new units in the West Bank. However, the Biden administration has broken from Trump’s uncritical support of settlement construction and expansion, sharply criticizing several plans by noting that they go against United Nations resolutions.

Instead, Biden’s trip is more aimed at shoring up the US’ relationship with Israel and Saudi Arabia in the face of a stalled attempt to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a 2015 deal with Iran that Jerusalem and Riyadh have never been satisfied with.

Last month, the US orchestrated a secret meeting in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh between Arab and Israeli military leaders to explore the idea of regional military cooperation against Iran.