UNITED NATIONS (AP) – US President Joe Biden’s government announced on Tuesday that it was restoring relations with the Palestinians and renewing aid to Palestinian refugees, a reversal of the Trump administration cut and a key element of its new support. to a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The acting US ambassador, Richard Mills, announced Biden’s approach to a high-level Security Council meeting, saying that the new US administration believes that this “remains the best way to secure the future of Israel as a democratic and Jewish state, while defending the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians for a state of their own and to live with dignity and security. “
President Donald Trump’s administration has provided unprecedented support for Israel, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, transferring the United States embassy from Tel Aviv, cutting financial assistance to Palestinians and reversing the course of illegitimacy of Israeli settlements on lands claimed by Palestinians.
Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 war. The international community regards both areas as occupied territories, and the Palestinians seek them out as parts of a future independent state. Israel has built a vast network of settlements that are home to some 700,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem since their capture in 1967.
The peace plan revealed by Trump a year ago envisages a disjointed Palestinian state that delivers important parts of the West Bank to Israel, allying itself with Israel on important contentious issues, including borders and the status of Jerusalem and Jewish settlements. It was vehemently rejected by the Palestinians.
Mills made clear the Biden administration’s more impartial approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Under the new administration, the policy of the United States will be to support a mutually agreed two-state solution, one in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state,” he said.
Mills said that peace cannot be imposed on either side and emphasized that progress and a definitive solution require the participation and agreement of Israelis and Palestinians.
“To advance these goals, the Biden government will restore credible US involvement to both Palestinians and Israelis,” he said.
“This will involve renewing US relations with the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people,” said Mills.
“President Biden has made it clear that he intends to restore the United States’ assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid programs to the Palestinian people, and to take steps to reopen diplomatic relations that were closed by the last United States government.” Mills said.
Trump cut funding from the UN Jobs and Assistance Agency known as UNRWA, which was created to help the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced to leave their homes during the war over the establishment of Israel in 1948. It provides education, health , food and other assistance to approximately 5.5 million refugees and their descendants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The United States was the main donor to UNRWA and the loss of funds created a financial crisis for the agency.
The Trump administration closed the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Washington office in September 2018, effectively closing the Palestinian diplomatic mission in the United States.
Mills said the United States hopes to start working to slowly build trust on both sides to create an environment for reaching a two-state solution.
To pursue this goal, Mills said, “the United States will urge the Israeli government and the Palestinians to avoid unilateral measures that make the two-state solution more difficult, such as annexation of territory, settlement activities, demolitions, incitement to violence and providing compensation to individuals arrested for acts of terrorism. ”
Israel accused the Palestinians of inciting violence and vehemently opposed the Palestinian Authority’s payment to the families of prisoners for attacking or killing Israelis.
Mills emphasized that “the US will maintain its unwavering support for Israel” – opposing unilateral resolutions and other actions in international bodies that unfairly highlight Israel and promoting Israel’s position and participation in the UN and other international organizations.
The Biden government welcomes the recent normalization of relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations and will ask other countries to establish ties, said Mills.
“Still, we recognize that Arab-Israeli normalization is not a substitute for Israeli-Palestinian peace,” he said.
Mills emphasized that the tense state of Israeli-Palestinian politics and the fact that trust between the two sides “is at rock bottom” does not exempt UN member countries “from the responsibility of trying to preserve the viability of a two-state state. . solution. “