‘It’s all empty promises’: Palestinians feel betrayed by US, warn there’s only so much they can bear
Abu A’asem brews pot after pot of his specialty Arabic coffee, despite the pouring rain. His corner stand at the heart of Ramallah is always busy, no matter the weather, but his future as a Palestinian is very much as gloomy as the skies above.
“I am 40 years old and I keep seeing the same thing. Many leaderships have come and gone and the situation remains the same,” he says.
Despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas just a few hilly kilometers away on Tuesday, A’asem says he is sure Palestinians are not a priority for Washington.
“His visit is only intended for Israel,” he says. “It’s just good manners to pass by since he is in the neighborhood.”
Blinken’s visit came in a month that has seen the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces at an eight-year-high. Ten of those deaths occurred because of a raid by Israeli forces in Jenin on Thursday. Tensions quickly spiraled and the next day, a Palestinian man shot and killed seven Israelis outside a synagogue.
Friday night’s shooting attack took place in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov, an area Israel considers to be a neighborhood of Jerusalem, but which is deemed illegally occupied land by most of the international community.
Blinken sought to lower the temperature, even before he arrived in Israel, while reinforcing the US ironclad commitment to Israeli security. He also said the US, specifically the Biden administration, remains committed to a two-state solution.
But that, he said, was “not sufficient” by itself. “It’s also important to continue to strive not only for reducing violence but ensuring that ultimately Israelis and Palestinians alike enjoy the same rights, the same opportunities. What we’re seeing now from Palestinians is a shrinking horizon of hope, not an expanding one, and that, too, we believe needs to change.”
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