Just hours before Joe Biden’s arrival at Ben-Gurion airport to ceremonial festivities headed by the Israeli president Isaac Herzog, a group of Palestinian-Americans gathered 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem to assert to the US president that they deserve protection from the US government in the face of ongoing Israeli violations.
Scheduled just ahead of Biden’s anticipated arrival, the offices of the human rights organization Al-Haq in downtown Ramallah were full of press as Palestinian-Americans held a conference under the banner of “equal protection requires equal attention” on Wednesday, July 13 to share the testimonies of Israeli violations against them.
The conference closed with four main demands from Palestinian-Americans:
- To be afforded the same level of protection and intervention by the U.S Government for violations Israel commits against U.S citizens of Palestinian descent.
- For the office of the Inspector General to open an investigation into the conduct of the State Department, especially the U.S embassy in Israel and its consular services. This conduct includes the discriminatory treatment of U.S citizens of Palestinian descent, and a consistent failure to adequately respond when confronted with Israeli violations against U.S. citizens, including but not limited to cases of torture, mistreatment, assault, land confiscations, denial of entry, family separation, child abuse, and killings.
- For the U.S. government to investigate Israel’s potential violations of existing U.S. laws, including the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act, and to end U.S. weapons funding to Israel due to Israel’s consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including gross violations against U.S. citizens.
- For the U.S Treasury Department to investigate U.S. 501(c)(3) charities that fund Israeli settler organizations that are directly involved in dispossessing Palestinians (including some U.S. citizens) of their land and housing rights.
“Equal protection requires equal attention“
In light of the American duty to protect and safeguard the rights of its citizen across the globe, Palestinian-Americans came together to shed light on the continued neglect by American administrations to secure the rights of dual US-Palestinian citizens as well.
In a press note, Palestinian-Americans–independent of any factional affiliation–noted that “the freedom of some people should not come at the expense and oppression of others. Likewise, the conviction to principles and values should not be diluted crossing from one shore to another.”
Palestinian political analyst and US citizen, Fadi Quran, spoke to Mondoweiss about the campaign, whose “goals are to ensure we put an end to this racist approach, and in so doing, [to] help further Palestinian rights across the board, including protecting property and pursuing accountability.”
The demand for the US government to cease its support of Israeli apartheid and persecution of Palestinians, including US citizens, was also echoed by Knesset members, including Dr. Ofer Cassif of the Joint List.
“I would like to express my solidarity and empathy with you and with the Palestinian people as a whole in your just struggle against Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing–and for liberation, statehood and just peace,” Dr. Cassif said in a statement he shared ahead of the conference.
American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib also released a statement during the conference in reference to the president’s trip. “Actions speak louder than words, and the President’s decision to push ahead with this ill-conceived trip demonstrates just how much work we as believers in human rights, equity, democratic governance, and peace have left to do to make these issues real priorities for our national leaders,” the statement said.
U.S. collusion against American citizens
In reflecting on US-Israeli relations, Quran highlights the duality of American foreign policy when it comes to Palestinian rights. “When it comes to Israel, decisions are not based on any values or even national interests—decisions are made based on the short-term political interests of the politicians in power, who are lobbied and even bullied by AIPAC,” he said.
The arrival of Biden to the region was not to initiate new efforts, but rather to formalize matters that have been already discussed throughout the year. Biden’s trip may therefore be seen more as a signing ceremony.
Whether you are an American citizen, a Palestinian-American citizen holder, as long as there is Palestinian in the word, there is always going to be discrimination.
Sahar Ibrahim
The trip was paved by a series of US senior diplomats visiting the region to meet with various representatives, including Palestinian and Israeli senior officials.
In April, US Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman met with Israel’s Minister of Regional Cooperation in April of this year in order to deepen cooperation between Israel, Bahrain, UAE, Sudan, and Morocco. While another trip in December of last year, American Assistant Acting Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Yael Lempert, paid a visit to the region and met with Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas. Lempert also met with Israel’s then Foreign Minister (Prime Minister as of the time of writing), Yair Lapid.
Following this, on 11 June–mere weeks after the killing of Al-Jazeera’s veteran Palestinian-American correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank–representatives from the US State Department also met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli representatives.
Dr. Cassif had noted this in his statement, remarking that, “even when it comes to Palestinian U.S citizens, their rights, wellbeing, and even their sheer lives (e.g., the late Shireen Abu Akleh), the U.S governments seem to be giving priority to Israeli whims over democracy, rights and justice.”
Indeed, US discrimination when it comes to protecting its citizens became more visible with the killing of Abu Akleh. US Spokesperson Ned Price said as much in a statement issued by the State Department: “The [US Security Coordinator] found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an IDF-led military operation against factions of Palestinian Islamic Jihad on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, which followed a series of terrorist attacks in Israel.”
With the failure of the US government to hold the killers of someone as notable as Shireen Abu Akleh–who was not only a US citizen, but was also killed despite wearing her PRESS jacket–there is concern over the potential corruption of the US in its differential treatment of its citizens.
Sahar Ibrahim, 58, who testified against the violations she faced as an American citizen, told Mondoweiss: “whether you are an American citizen, a Palestinian-American citizen holder, as long as there is Palestinian in the word, there is always going to be discrimination. Meaning nothing will be done about it.”
State Department discrimination
Reflecting on the Biden trip and its results, researcher and analyst Ubay Aboudi said that “the Biden administration continues its attack on the Palestinian political narrative and our basic rights.”
However, beyond narrative and representation is an economic layer that is important in the US-Israeli relationship. “If you see the White House statement…they are saying economic peace,” Aboudi told Mondoweiss. “The same idea that Netanyahu stated in 1996.”
The concept of economic peace, similar to Trump’s echoes of “economic prosperity,” does not address the issue of American military aid to Israel.
The bullet which killed Abu Akleh, and the army which was found responsible for killing US citizen Omar Assad, 78, were not created in a vacuum. They are sustained and made possible through the continued support of US military aid.
“For ages the U.S has invested considerable financial, military and diplomatic aid in order to ensure Israel’s ‘safety” and ‘security,’” Dr. Cassif stated. Yet, it is the monetary contribution of the US that continues to widen the gap between Palestinians’ capacity for protecting themselves and Israel’s practices of disproportionate use of violence.
In negating not only Palestinian rights, but specifically the protection of US citizens, there is more potential for the violation of US laws in carrying out American foreign relations with Israel.
Fadi Quran goes on to explain: “discriminatory policy means the State Department is likely in violation of US laws in how they respond to Israeli abuses of Palestinian-Americans.”
In a similar address, Dr. Cassif stated that “U.S aid serves Israel in maintaining and strengthening Jewish supremacy, discrimination and oppression of the Palestinians – primarily in the 1967 Occupied Territories, but also within the State of Israel per se.”
I think in any other context…you would be able to sue the government, or…sue the state of Israel for these types of violations.
Ubai Aboudi
For years, Palestinians have been demanding that the US cease its military aid to and support of Israel. Currently more voices join in demanding that American tax dollars are no longer funneled into the development of Israeli military technologies that are used in committing crimes against humanity.
“The Biden government promised a foreign policy that prioritizes human rights, yet they are failing to even protect the human rights of their own citizens when they are of Palestinian background,” Quran explained.
In fact, prior to Biden’s arrival, Black and Palestinian organizers demanded that he cancel his trip to the region, dubbing it a “war-crimes tour” not only in visiting Palestine but also in light of Saudi Arabia’s crimes against Yemenis.
Rectifying the impact of US policy
In a sorrowful tone, Sahar Ibrahim thinks about the 1.2 out of 1.8 acres of land she inherited from her father in Ramallah, now taken by the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El: “five dunums [0.5 hectares] are going to go to a road that the settlers are trying to build.”
“As a Palestinian-American I have the right to own land here, and I’m requesting it because they don’t have the right to take it,” Ibrahim emphasized.
Palestinian citizens of the US are now demanding that their representative government take new steps in rectifying the negative impact of US policy. More than this, there is recognition that as citizens, their votes are also pivotal in US elections.
Reflecting on the past practices of US administrations, Ibrahim told Mondoweiss: “As a US citizen….I have the right to vote for anyone I want. I voted for Obama in the hopes of something to be done.” Frustrated in recognizing she had also voted for Biden, she continued to note: “I didn’t see anything being done. As an American citizen holder, I have realized it’s always promises…but there is nothing done about it.”
“I think in any other context, other than the US, you would be able to sue the government or take actions, or maybe sue the state of Israel for these types of violations,” Aboudi explained.
He clarifies that this is not about giving Palestinians preferential treatment–“it is upholding the law and trying to hold Israel to account using a second nationality to Palestinians.”
