WASHINGTON – The Biden government will restore diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority, more than two years after President Donald J. Trump effectively ended them. The move signals a return to a more traditional and impartial approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after a Trump administration policy that has been strongly focused on Israel.
The move, which will include resuming American aid to the Palestinians, was announced on Tuesday in a speech by Richard Mills, the United States’ acting ambassador to the United Nations.
Mr Mills also reaffirmed support for a “mutually agreed two-state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians, “in which Israel lives in peace and security, alongside a viable Palestinian state”. And he urged the parties to refrain from unilateral actions, such as the annexation of territories and settlement activities by Israel, or incitement to violence by the Palestinians, which could make such a result more difficult.
Analysts and regional leaders say the prospects for a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians are bleaker than they were decades ago. The parties have virtually ceased communications, Palestinian leaders have summarily rejected a peace plan offered by Trump’s White House last year and the issue is not among the top priorities of Biden’s foreign policy.
But the announcement is part of a broader return to previous U.S. foreign policy practices under the Biden government, and an end to the open hostility between Washington and the Palestinians fostered by the Trump administration. Guided by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Trump took an openly punitive approach towards the Palestinians with the aim of forcing them to make concessions to Israel, but to no avail.
The policy change was quickly applauded by Palestinian leaders and supporters of a solution negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.
“This is exactly the kind of quick action that the government needs to take to restore American credibility as a diplomatic mediator between Israelis and Palestinians,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal defense group that supports an Israeli settlement with the Palestinians. “Undoing the terrible damage caused by the Trump administration begins with re-establishing a working relationship with the Palestinian leadership and people.”
Mills said the Biden government “will take steps to reopen diplomatic missions that were closed by the last United States government”, without offering details. In addition to closing the Palestinian Mission in Washington in September 2018, the Trump administration also closed the United States Consulate in East Jerusalem.
Biden has no direct way to reopen a Palestinian mission in Washington. A law passed by Congress in 1987 blocked the Palestinians’ right to open an office in America. Successive presidents have managed to circumvent the legislation with a waiver, but subsequent laws passed in 2015 and 2018 limit the president’s ability to circumvent the previous restriction.
The announcement, however, was warmly welcomed by Palestinian officials, who see the tone of the Biden government as a welcome break from Trump’s cold shoulder.
“For the first time, President Biden’s government has officially expressed its position on the peace process and the two-state solution,” said Ahmed Majdalani, member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee and Minister of Social Development at the Authority Palestine in response to the announcement. “We believe that this position constitutes an important positive step on the path to restore bilateral US-Palestinian relations and opens the door to restoring the peace process within the framework of multilateral international sponsorship.”
Mr Mills also said that Mr Biden intended to “restore US assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people”.
In 2018, the Trump administration cut $ 200 million in economic assistance to Palestinians and suspended nearly $ 350 million in annual funding for a United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees.
“We do not see these measures as a favor for the Palestinian leadership,” he added. “US assistance benefits millions of ordinary Palestinians and helps preserve a stable environment that benefits both Palestinians and Israelis.”
At the same time, Trump ended Washington’s opposition to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, although he did not support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on territorial annexation.
Alternatively, the Trump administration brokered diplomatic agreements between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors, in exchange for Netanyahu’s assurance that he would not seek annexation for the time being, although he has not abandoned the idea. The Israeli leader now faces a national election for the fourth time in two years after Israel’s coalition government has failed to stay together.
In his remarks to the United Nations Security Council, Mr. Mills said that the Biden government “welcomes the recent standardization agreements” between Israel and the Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. But he added that “Arab-Israeli normalization is not a substitute for Israeli-Palestinian peace”.
He added that “the United States will maintain its unwavering support for Israel” and “will continue its long-standing policy of opposing unilateral resolutions and other actions in international organizations that unfairly isolate Israel”. Although the Democratic Party has become more critical of Israeli policies in recent years, Biden’s positions are more centrist and he is less quick to criticize the country than other Democrats.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
This month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced a timetable for what would be the first Palestinian elections in at least 15 years, in a move that was perceived in part as an attempt to win Biden’s favor.
Mr. Mills is the US Chargé d’Affaires at the United Nations. Mr. Biden appointed Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career official at the State Department, to serve as her permanent ambassador to the agency.
Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Mohammed Najib from Ramallah, West Bank.