With Biden, Palestinians seeking freedom get permits

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With Biden, Palestinians seeking freedom get permits JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press For more than two years, the Biden administration has said that Palestinians are entitled to the same measure of "freedom, se- curity and prosperity" en- joyed by Israelis. Instead, they've gotten U.S. aid and permits to work inside Is- rael and its Jewish settle- ments.

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 Pal- estinians in the West Bank and Gaza, allowing them to make far higher wages and injecting much-needed "Economic measures do cash into economies hob- blockade is needed to pre- egy, providing financial as- sistance to Palestinians but bled by Israeli restrictions. have the potential to pos- Biden will likely tout the itively contribute to mak- vent Hamas from arming itself. tens of millions of dollars ing peace, but that would Israel also increased the giving Israel no incentive to require Israel and the U.S. number of permits issued in end the occupation or grant them equal rights.

Even its in aid to the Palestinians he restored after it was cut off having a plan to end this the West Bank, where well relatively modest plan to 55-year-old military occu- over 100,000 Palestinians reopen a U.S. Consulate in during the Trump years.

Supporters say such eco- pation," said Sam Bahour, a work inside Israel and the Palestinian-American busi- nomic measures improve ness consultant based in the settlements, mostly in con- Jerusalem serving Palestin- the lives of Palestinians and struction, manufacturing ians hit a wall of Israeli op- position. West Bank. and agriculture.

It has even Ines Abdel Razek, advo- help preserve the possibil- ity of an eventual political "They don't, so any so- begun allowing small num- cacy director at the Palestine called economic 'confi- solution. bers of Palestinian profes- Institute for Public Diplo- dence-building measures' sionals to work in high- But when Biden is driven past Israel's towering sepa- are merely occupation-en- trenching measures, Ba- er-paying jobs in Israel's macy, says both the United booming high-tech sector.

States and the European ration barrier to meet with hour said.

The government billed Union are "throwing money at the Palestinians" instead Palestinians in the West Israel's short-lived co- those and other economic of owning up to their com- Bank town of Bethlehem, alition government issued he will hear a very different story - about how Israel is 14,000 permits to Palestin- measures as goodwill ges- plicity in the occupation. ians in Gaza, which has been tures, even as it approved the construction of thousands "All Biden is trying to do is cementing its decades-long military rule over millions under a crippling blockade of additional settler homes maintain a certain quiet and of Palestinians, with no end since the Islamic militant in the occupied West Bank. calm, which for Palestinians group Hamas seized power The Biden administration means entrenched coloni- in sight. zation and repression," she 15 years ago.

Israel says the has adopted a similar strat- said.

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"With Biden, Palestinians seeking freedom get permits," The Courier, 12 July 2022. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2022-054. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2022-054