WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden government is working out a plan to restore US ties to the Palestinians that practically collapsed under former President Donald Trump, according to a draft internal memorandum.
Two people familiar with the State Department document, which was first reported by the United Arab Emirates newspaper The National, said it was still in an early “work stage”, but could eventually serve as a basis for reversing parts of Trump’s approach that the Palestinians denounced as strongly biased in favor of Israel.
Since President Joe Biden took office on January 20, his advisers have said they intend to fix relations with the Palestinians. The government has pledged to retake hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and humanitarian assistance and to work to reopen the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.
Biden’s advisers also made it clear that they want to re-establish the goal of a negotiated two-state solution as a priority in US policy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they acted cautiously as the March 23 elections in Israel approached, followed by the Palestinian elections scheduled for the coming months.
A part of the draft memorandum cited by The National said that the US vision is “to promote freedom, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians in the immediate term”.
The document was quoted as saying that $ 15 million in pandemic aid COVID-19 for Palestinians could be announced by the end of March. It is also reported that it takes a tougher stance on Israeli settlement activities and mentions efforts “to obtain a Palestinian commitment to end payments to individuals arrested (by Israel) for acts of terrorism”.
A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the document was a preliminary draft subject to review and any final version would require inter-agency review.
“We have no comment on this specific memo,” US State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters at a daily news conference.
Reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington, additional reporting by Rami Ayyub in Tel Aviv; edition by Grant McCool