{"id":107039,"date":"2021-04-04T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=0fb2752e8634577f308ef8d04dbd4b1e"},"modified":"2021-04-04T15:35:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T15:35:00","slug":"biden-could-chart-a-new-path-for-us-on-palestinian-rights-will-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/04\/04\/biden-could-chart-a-new-path-for-us-on-palestinian-rights-will-he\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Could Chart a New Path for US on Palestinian Rights. Will He?"},"content":{"rendered":"\"A<\/a>

Every day my friend in Palestine sends me the local paper as a way to keep in touch. For the past five decades, the headlines have been consistent: \u201cLand Annexed,\u201d \u201cTrees Uprooted,\u201d \u201cHouses Demolished,\u201d \u201cCurfew Inflicted,\u201d \u201cYouth Arrested,\u201d \u201cVillage Attacked,\u201d Young Man Shot\u201d\u2026 often all on the same front page. For the last year, they have also included a tally of COVID-19 cases and fatalities.<\/p>\n

Israel leads the world in vaccine distribution, but it has largely refused to vaccinate Palestinians. In the occupied Palestinian territory, only around 2 percent of the population has been vaccinated. The Fourth Geneva Convention states that an occupying power has \u201cthe duty of ensuring and maintaining … the public health and hygiene in occupied territory\u201d and has the responsibility \u201cto combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.\u201d Israel is ignoring its legal as well as moral responsibility.<\/p>\n

As in many places around the world, the pandemic has laid bare the stark inequalities and injustices that have always been with us. We have seen how the freedoms, rights and lives of people of color and poor people have been deemed less worthy of protections and medical care.<\/p>\n

While the Biden administration has spoken out about human rights violations in other countries, it has been notably silent on the human rights of Palestinians — making us feel as though our lives are not worthy of protection. Instead, the Biden administration has reaffirmed its opposition to the boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement<\/a><\/span>, opposed the International Criminal Court investigation<\/a><\/span> of war crimes committed by Israel, and thus far has rejected calls to condition military funding to Israel on its human rights record.<\/p>\n

Providing financial support for Israel\u2019s occupation is a decades-long bipartisan position in the U.S., and four years of the Trump administration made the situation worse. President Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, disregarded international law by supporting Israeli settlements, cut humanitarian aid including critical support to the refugees, ended all diplomatic efforts with Palestinian representatives and attempted to impose its will on the Palestinian people through the so-called \u201cdeal of the century.\u201d <\/p>\n

But we need more than just reversing the harms of the last four years. We need the Biden administration to exert pressure on Israel to ensure it upholds the human rights of Palestinians under international law — including by withholding military aid. We need the Biden administration to ensure Palestinians living under occupation are part of all aspects of any peace process. We need an end to the blockade of over 2 million people in Gaza; we need Palestinian self-determination, freedom of movement, and control over our borders, natural resources and trade. And we need an end to illegal settlements and land confiscation. In the U.S., Biden must make clear that criticism of Israel, including support for BDS actions, is protected and legitimate speech.<\/p>\n

Without significant changes, the apartheid system that denies lifesaving medical care to Palestinians will remain.<\/p>\n

As a Palestinian American, I am tired of having our calls for justice dismissed by U.S. policy makers as illegitimate, unfounded and even antisemitic. I grew up in Palestine and lived there most of my life. I raised my children there and worked as an educator at a Quaker School in Ramallah. Our lived experiences under military occupation are real. The horizons of my students \u2014 brilliant thinkers who dreamed of liberation and life beyond occupied Palestine \u2014 are legitimate.<\/p>\n