US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his sadness at the “innocent Palestinian civilians” killed in the West Bank last year after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.
Washington’s top diplomat met Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah on the penultimate stop of his trip to the Middle East aimed at stemming bloodshed and rising tensions, after meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior Israeli ministers, President Isaac Herzog and opposition leader Yair lapid.
Israel says most, though not all, of the more than 30 Palestinians killed since the beginning of the year have taken part in clashes with Israeli defense forces. A 60-year-old woman was shot dead in a military attack in Jenin last Thursday that killed eight others, most of them members of a terrorist group. Also last week, a father was shot dead by troops at a checkpoint in front of his son in an altercation the army later said should not have ended in his death. More than 170 Palestinians were killed in 2022 – most of them in attacks on soldiers and civilians, although some were innocent civilians – making it the deadliest year since the United Nations crackdown began in 2005.
“Palestinians and Israelis alike are experiencing growing insecurity, growing fear in their homes, in their communities and in their places of worship,” Blinken said.
The US envoy’s remarks along with the Palestinian leader came a day after his meeting with Netanyahu, when he urged both sides to take “urgent steps” to ease tensions.
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Blinken “expressed his sorrow for the innocent Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives amid escalating violence over the past year.” He also condemned Palestinians “who … celebrate acts of terrorism that are costing innocent lives” after a deadly gun battle Friday near a synagogue in Jerusalem — the deadliest terrorist attack on Israelis in over a decade.
Palestinians celebrate after a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 27, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
After meeting Palestinian residents in the West Bank, the top US diplomat said he saw a “shrinking horizon of hope” for the Palestinians.
Abbas told Blinken that Israel was responsible for the recent surge in violence – including the Jerusalem shooting that killed seven people, which was carried out by a Palestinian from East Jerusalem – and highlighted Israel’s “policy that a undermines the two-state solution”.
Abbas has yet to explicitly condemn Friday’s attack.
The aging Palestinian leader also bemoaned what he saw as a lack of effort by the international community to hold the Israeli government to account, claiming this has resulted in continued settlement expansion, land confiscation, settler violence, IDF raids on Palestinian towns, home demolitions and evictions allows.
For his part, Blinken told reporters that the US will continue to oppose such moves by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Police at the scene of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on January 28, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Abbas also addressed Palestinian efforts to secure full member status at the United Nations — an initiative the US opposes and has indicated to PA officials it would block, officials in Washington and Ramallah said. The US has a veto right in the Security Council, the approval of which is required for the Palestinians to receive elevated status at the UN.
“We made a number of decisions that we have started implementing to protect the interests of our people after exhausting all other options,” Abbas said, reportedly referring to his office’s announcement last week that it was the Israel will break off security coordination.
The move has been denounced by the US, but Abbas privately assured CIA Director Bill Burns earlier this week that the cooperation has only been partially halted and can be restored once tensions ease, an official familiar with the matter told the Times on Monday of Israel.
Abbas reiterated that he remains opposed to violence and terrorism and supports a two-state solution.
‘Deep Concern’
In a news conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem, Blinken said restoring calm between Israelis and Palestinians was “the immediate task” after returning from Ramallah, but that Washington would continue to work toward a two-state solution.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses a press conference in Jerusalem on January 31, 2023. (Lazar Berman/The Times of Israel)
He seemed to place the overwhelming blame on Israel for threatening that goal.
“The United States will continue to oppose anything that further derails that goal,” Blinken said in prepared remarks, “including but not limited to settlement expansion, legalization of illegal outposts, moves to annex the West Bank, and disruption.” history of the status quo at the holy sites of Jerusalem, demolitions and evictions, and incitement and condoning of violence.”
“All sides must take steps to prevent further escalation of violence and restore calm,” he added.
“I have heard deep concern about the current course,” the top US diplomat said of his meetings in Egypt, Israel and the West Bank. “I have reaffirmed to Israel and its people our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”
Blinken said he asked several of his colleagues to remain on the ground after his departure to assist Israeli and Palestinian officials in implementing some of the proposals to de-escalate tensions discussed during his trip.
“It’s essentially up to them,” he said of Israelis and Palestinians. “They must work together to find a way forward that both defuses the current cycle of violence and leads to positive steps that everyone can take to rebuild some trust and confidence,” he said during the press conference.
He also announced an additional $50 million in US aid to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. The US is the agency’s largest sponsor and has donated hundreds of millions of dollars since US President Joe Biden took office and reversed the policies of his predecessor, who cut aid to UNRWA entirely.
Referring to Iran, Blinken underscored the US commitment to working with Israel to counter the threat posed by Tehran.
But, as with his meetings with Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, he quickly turned to discussing Israel’s policy towards Ukraine, saying that the deepening of Iran-Moscow ties and the arms provided by the Islamic Republic “revealed the importance of providing.” “ show support for all needs of Ukraine – humanitarian, economic and security related.”
FILE: Firefighters work on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, following a drone attack on Monday, October 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Roman Hrytsyna)
Israel has avoided sending arms to Kyiv despite providing significant humanitarian assistance. Cohen will travel to Ukraine in the near future, the highest-ranking Israeli official he has visited since the war began nearly a year ago.
Blinken, who during his visit offered thinly veiled criticism of the Netanyahu government’s deeply divisive judicial reform proposals, stressed at the press conference that “Israel has a very robust civil society.”
“I continue to be inspired by the vibrancy with which Israel shares [democratic] values,” he said. “There is clearly a very lively debate, a discussion going on in Israel. These debates are a very healthy part of a vibrant democracy.”
Demonstrators against proposed changes to the justice system at the President’s residence in Jerusalem on January 21, 2023. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
The Netanyahu coalition is pushing ahead with a series of dramatic reforms that would greatly increase government control of the judiciary.
The plan has drawn strong criticism and warnings from leading financial and legal experts, as well as weekly mass protests and public petitions from various officials, professionals and private companies.
“Getting consensus on new proposals is the best way, not just to make sure they’re adopted so that they last,” Blinken added, referring to the proposed judiciary reorganization. “All of this is of course a matter for the Israelis.”
As he did alongside Netanyahu, Blinken reiterated the democratic values that underpin US-Israel relations, including human rights, equal justice before the law and a robust civil society.
AFP contributed to this report.