US must put “brakes on Israelis” as violence escalates: Activists | New conflicts

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U.S. President Joe Biden is committed to taking a rights-based approach to U.S. foreign policy.
But like Israeli airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip, killing more than two dozen Palestinians in the besieged coastal territory, Palestinian advocates say Biden does not apply the rule to Israel – and without pressure from the US, Israel has little incentive to change its stance.
Phyllis Bennis, an analyst at the U.S. Institute for Policy Research, said that “as long as the U.S. is not willing to hold Israel accountable,” statements made by the Biden administration about ongoing violence would not lead to regret. climbing.
“We hear from President Biden that he wants a human rights-based foreign policy. What we don’t see is a real commitment to human rights – and in this case, there is certainly no will. use political capital“Bennis told Al Jazeera in an interview.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have come after weeks of escalating tensions forced displacement several Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, an occupied Palestinian neighborhood east of Jerusalem that have been trying to expel Jewish settlements for decades.
The situation worsened Israeli police seized the Al-Aqsa Mosque In the Old Quarter of Jerusalem – the third holiest site in Islam – and hundreds of Palestinian worshipers were injured in a few days of violence. Protests began throughout the occupied territories and within Israel. The Palestinian party Hamas, which rules Gaza, fired rockets at Israel.
Local health authorities have reported that at least 32 Palestinians, including several children, have been killed in the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, and observers fear the situation could worsen. Three Israelis have killed Palestinian rockets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Tuesday that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were “very afraid of being paid for their belligerence” and said Israel was “at the height of its heavy campaign.” Hamas has pledged to continue with Israeli airstrikes.
“Silent acceptance”
The Biden administration, which took office in late January, made it clear that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is low on its list of priorities, among other issues that are putting pressure on it at home and abroad.
But Yara Asi, a non-resident at the Arab Center in Washington Center and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Central Florida, said when the U.S. was intercepted $ 3.8 million in military aid to Israel every year and provides diplomatic and political coverage to the Israeli government in international spheres such as the United Nations, it is “despicable” to try to dismantle Washington.
“There’s no more intimate foreign actor outside of Israel and the Palestinians than the United States, and that’s been the case for decades – and it continues to be,” he told Al Jazeera.
“You’re not going to get to appoint the Israeli ambassador and say ‘well we’re prioritizing.’ It’s too late to do that. It’s just a silent acceptance of what’s happening. In a way, the U.S. is supporting everything that’s going on.”
While the violence is developing, the Biden administration has released a series of statements calling for escalation. Observers have criticized the U.S. government for not acknowledging the asymmetry of power between Israel and the Palestinians, and are demanding that Biden be asked for more.
On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price called for moderation and calm. “Israel has the right to defend itself and respond to rocket attacks; The Palestinian people also have the right to security and safety, just like the Israelis, ”he said in a news release.
They criticized the price requires “Israeli and Palestinian officials to act decisively to increase tensions and stop violence” in Jerusalem on May 7, the same day as Israeli forces he made a storm Al-Aqsa mosque.
Analysts noted that in 1967 they occupied East Jerusalem and unilaterally added that Israel was the only authority in the city.
Palestinian rights activists also accused Price of failing to say that journalists have the right to self-defense when pressured by the State Department on Monday. After the back-and-forth discussion, Price finally said, “I’m not in a position to discuss the legalities here. Our message is to scale.”
Prevent further violence
Khaled Elgindy, director of the Palestinian and Palestinian and Israeli Affairs Program at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank, told Al Jazeera that the exchange on Monday revealed that it is the talk of the U.S. government for decades. no more work.
“The connection between the points of discussion and reality is too great,” he said.
It seems that he thought the Biden administration would fill the position, “reverse Trump’s horrible policies, leave others in their place and then put everything on the shelf and forget about it,” Elgindy said.
“But you can’t forget that, because there is occupation and blockade and these things aren’t static … It’s not stagnant; it’s getting worse for Palestinians. It’s naive not to let things explode, because they always do.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian defenders staged protests on Tuesday evening outside the U.S. State Department in Washington (DC) demanding that the Biden administration demand the forced expulsion of Palestinian families from Palestinian families in Jerusalem.
Organizer of the Palestinian Youth Movement, Laura Albast, one of the groups that took part in the demonstration, also said a request With more than 200,000 signatures, it was sent to Secretary of State Antony Blink, asking him to stop the forced relocation.
“We are sending billions of dollars of taxpayers to Israel to fund the military,” Albast told Al Jazeera in a telephone interview Tuesday evening. “Why is Israel an exception to human rights violations?”
Elgindy said it is critical that the Biden administration now intervene to prevent further violence in Gaza – or that the situation could be repeated. horrific Israeli military offensives In Palestinian territory, for example, more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed in 2014.
“It’s really important that this administration does everything it can to prevent that from happening,” he said, “and that means putting the brakes on the Israelis.”
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