For more than two years, the Biden administration has said that Palestinians are entitled to the same measure of “freedom, security and prosperity” enjoyed by Israelis. Instead, they’ve gotten US aid and permits to work inside Israel and its Jewish settlements.
The inconsistency is likely to come up when President Joe Biden visits Israel and the occupied West Bank this week for the first time since assuming office.
Israeli officials will likely point to the thousands of work permits issued to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, allowing them to make far higher wages and injecting much-needed cash into economies hobbled by Israeli restrictions.
Biden will likely tout the tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians he restored after it was cut off during the Trump years.
Supporters say such economic measures improve the lives of Palestinians and help preserve the possibility of an eventual political
solution.
But when Biden is driven past Israel’s towering separation barrier to meet with Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, he will hear a very different story - about how Israel is cementing its decades-long military rule over millions of Palestinians, with no end in sight.