Criticism over Israel’s abuses and discriminatory policies is mounting within the US democratic party amid the latest escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine. Biden is increasingly at odds with the stricter stance his administration is adopting vis-a-vis Israel.
Congressional Democrats addressed a letter to President Joe Biden this Wednesday, urging him to back off from Trump’s administration’s “abandonment of longstanding, bipartisan United States policy.”
Seventy-three members of the US House of Representatives signed the letter, including seven Jewish democrats with congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois in the lead.
The letter called on Biden to withdraw from the “peace plan” legitimizing Israel’s illegal settlements and annexation of Palestinian territory.
The members also demanded that the US align its outlook on Israel’s settlements with international law, deeming them illegitimate.
In 2016, a UN security council resolution concluded that Israeli settlements were in flagrant violation of international law and have repeatedly urged the government of Israel to stop its expansionist policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
When Trump became president, his administration declared that the US would no longer regard Israel’s settlements as inconsistent with international law.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced the news in November 2019, radically reversing US policy on the Israeli-Palestine issue and closely aligning with right-wing Israeli politicians.
The announcement was met with praise from right-wing Israelis and dismay from Palestinians who said the US is no longer a reliable peace mediator in the conflict.
Furthermore, the Trump administration initiated a “peace plan” that effectively denied Palestinians their right to self-determination and entrenched their suffering instead of offering a viable solution for peace in the region.
In addition, Former US president Trump recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 in the aftermath of the six-day war.
The letter also recommended that President Biden condemn the eviction of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, which originated in the latest escalation of violence.
The UN has described these forced evictions as a “grave breach of the fourth Geneva convention” and urged Israel to halt them.
This is not the first time members of the democratic party address a letter to Biden about US relations with Israel, given that the president has persistently sided with Israel.
In May 2021, about 500 democratic party members and staffers addressed an open letter to President Joe Biden. The letter contained the same message, as it also urged Biden to adopt a harsher stance against Israel and be more critical of its policies that negatively impact Palestinians.
With a growing shift in the democratic party and voices rising to challenge Israel’s abuses that have cost Palestine many innocent lives, it looks like the Biden administration will have to reconsider its traditional pro-Israel stance.
With progressive members like Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemning Israel and openly calling it an “apartheid state,” it appears the ground is shifting regarding the Democrats’ traditional, long-standing position on Israel.
The Democrats are calling on a more “even-handed” approach to the conflict, namely through limiting US weapons and foreign aid sent to Israel, which they say allows the country to continue its persecution of Palestinians while having the upper hand in the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict.
