Palestinians rally in West Bank and Gaza against Biden bid to fix Israel's place in Arab world

Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip took to the streets on Thursday to protest US President Joe Biden's visit to the region.

The popular rallies, organised by Palestinian factions, saw protesters raise Palestinian flags and banners denouncing the "unfair and biased US role of Israel against the Palestinian cause".

Biden will visit the West Bank, after meetings with Israeli leaders where his support for "Zionism".

Palestinian activists and leaders, such as Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the National Initiative, say that Biden's visit to the region is intended to further cement US support for Israel.

US President Joe Biden is on the second day of his tour of the Middle East with further meetings with officials in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

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— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) July 14, 2022

"Biden came here to prove to us and to the world that America is the main supporter and sponsor of the existence of the Israeli entity... Biden is the other face of former President Donald Trump," Barghouti told The New Arab.

"It is true that Trump launched the Deal of the Century, declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and vowed to strengthen Israel's presence militarily and economically, but Biden is brazenly implementing all Trump's promises."

He called for Biden's upcoming meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas to be cancelled due to the US president's continuation of Trump-era, pro-Israeli policies. 

Mohammed al-Arouri, a Ramallah-based activist, told The New Arab: "I came here to express my rejection of Biden's visit because it represents the historical bias of the United States toward Israel."

"The United States is imposing on the victim, the Palestinian people, humiliating conditions to give us some of the support that it stopped during the Trump era... They are asking us to make more concessions, while supporting Israel with tens of millions of dollars, including militarily, without any conditions."

Sami al-Ajramy took part in a rally in Ramallah and criticized the Palestinian Authority's insistence on hosting Biden, despite his clear bias toward Israel.

"Receiving Biden in Bethlehem means tacit approval of the Palestinian leadership on all Biden's decisions in favour of Israel and a denial of all Palestinian rights," he said.

"We need a strong leadership that confronts such violations against our rights."

Palestinians will gain nothing from US President Joe Biden's visit to the region which will only provide political and security achievements to Israel, political analysts said on Wednesday. https://t.co/E9QgeLApcg

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) July 14, 2022

On Wednesday, Biden arrived in Israel for the first time since becoming president in January 2021, for a 40-hour visit to hold meetings with Israeli officials. 

He is scheduled to visit the Palestinian territories for only one hour where he will meet President Abbas in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Biden reaffirmed American support for a two-state solutio on Thursday, but his visit has been met with skepticism from Palestinians who say their concerns about Israeli settlement building and self-determination have been swept aside by the US, eager to fix Israel's place in regional security arrangements with Arab countries.

They also say Washington has failed to live up to pledges on reopening its consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, closed by former US President Donald Trump in 2019.

Following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Biden said the US wanted to see a "lasting negotiated peace between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people".

"Israel must remain an independent, democratic Jewish state," he said.

A senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya who was at the protest told The New Arab that anyone who believes Biden supports the Palestinians is "delusional". 

"Biden's mission is to implement the terms of the deal of the century established by his predecessor Trump,” he said. 

He added that "Biden's signature on the Jerusalem declaration with the Zionist enemy is a blatant confirmation of the US policy biased towards the occupation," stressing that "the Palestinians have the full right to defend their national rights by all possible means."

Walid Al-Awad, an official in the Palestinian People's Party, told The New Arab: "The Jerusalem Declaration represents a document that confirms that successive US administrations deal with Israel as the 51st state of the United States."

Al-Awad called on all Palestinian factions, mainly Fatah and Hamas,  to unite for the national cause.

"Only with the unity of our people and strengthening their steadfastness, can we thwart the goals of Biden's visit... and cut off his attempts to use the Palestinians as a bridge to consolidate normalisation and facilitate the integration of Israel into the region in multi-form alliances,” he said.