Palestinians expect little as Biden travels to occupied West Bank | Israel-Palestine conflict News

United States President Joe Biden is set to visit the Palestinian city of Bethlehem on the last day of his visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Prior to heading to the occupied West Bank on Friday afternoon, Biden arrived at the Augusta Victoria hospital in occupied East Jerusalem. There, he is expected to announce some $100m in financial assistance to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network (EJHN), conditioned upon approval from the US Congress.

In Bethlehem, in the southern occupied West Bank, Biden will meet Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

Biden will reportedly announce that Palestinian mobile phone companies in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip will be allowed to connect to 4G networks by the end of 2023.

The president is expected to spend a short amount of time in Bethlehem, before heading to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport to fly directly to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for the last stop in his trip later on Friday.

Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday, and spent the whole of Thursday in the country, meetings both the Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog.

However, the US president has come under criticism for the small amount of time that has been allocated for meetings with Palestinian officials during his visit, as well as his failure to take a strong political stance towards Israel’s continued building of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite claiming to continue supporting a two-state solution.

Critics have also accused Biden of failing to take steps towards accountability for Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank in May.

A United Nations investigation has concluded that the bullet that killed the veteran journalist was fired by Israeli forces.

The Biden administration, however, angered Palestinian rights and press freedom advocates when it said earlier this month that State Department investigators had found Israeli military gunfire was “likely responsible” for Abu Akleh’s death, but that forensic analysis showed no reason to believe that the shooting was intentional.

Activists, volunteers and journalists have put up billboards and large banners of Abu Akleh across Bethlehem ahead of Biden’s visit.

In occupied East Jerusalem, a peaceful protest was held near the Augusta Victoria hospital calling for justice for Abu Akleh.

“His visit to Bethlehem is just a formality – nothing more,” Al Jazeera bureau chief Walid Omary said from Ramallah. “He will spend 45 minutes in Bethlehem, as opposed to 45 hours,” in Israel.

Al-Omary added that the Palestinians were hoping that Biden would make decisions on issues such as the continued building of settlements, which they say prevent any hope of an independent Palestinian state.

“[The PA] president was expecting the fulfillment of some of the promises that Biden made during his election campaign… such as the reopening of the US consulate in East Jerusalem, or removing the ban on the Palestinian Liberation Organisation office in Washington,” al-Omary said. “It’s clear that the US president is not giving anything to the Palestinians other than some aid or attempts to show that he pressured Israel to provide some procedures.”

Under his predecessor, President Donald Trump, the US government recognised the whole of Jerusalem – including the occupied eastern half – as Israel’s capital and moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In a joint press conference held by Biden and Lapid on Thursday, Biden said that his visit to occupied East Jerusalem did not signal a reversal of that recognition.

Trump also recognised Israeli sovereignty over the 1967-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, closed down the Palestinian representative office in Washington, and shut the US consulate to Palestinians in Jerusalem. He also cut financial support to the PA and funding to the UN’s refugee agency (UNRWA), among other things.

Apart from the expected announcement of a resumption of financial assistance to the PA and to humanitarian institutions, Biden has not reversed any of Trump’s policies.

Senior Al Jazeera analyst Marwan Bishara said that it was becoming evident that the US was “giving up its responsibility of being a serious player in bringing an end to the conflict”.

By only announcing financial aid to the Palestinians, “the occupation of Palestine, apartheid in Palestine, is no longer looked at as a political issue, as a national issue,” Bishara said.

“It’s being looked at as some humanitarian issue that needs a subsidy of some sort.”