"The Deal of the Century"

The US administration has never been supportive of our cause as Palestinians.  And I specifically say the administration because we have a lot of support from the public, the mainstream churches, the civil society, as well as many Jewish Americans.  The United Nations records show clearly that it was the Veto of the US at the United Nations that has hindered the implementation of the UN resolutions that would have guaranteed our rights as Palestinians, basically the right to return to our homes from which we  were evicted by force or  had to flee for our lives in 1948.   We were never even offered compensation,  and Israel  continues till this day to deny its responsibility for our plight.  

But never has an administration been so blatantly proactive in its humiliation of the Palestinians and ignoring their rights like this present administration.  It actually violated  international law so as to offer Israel all that it wants on a silver platter.  First, by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, then by cutting all US Aid that started flowing into the country after the Oslo agreement between the PLO and Israel was signed.  Yet the US found it very timely to close the offices of the PLO in the USA,  as well as cutting aid to UNRWA, the organization which was established by the United Nations to take care of the basic needs of the Palestinian Refugees until they were able to realize their right of return.   So it seems like “this great democracy in the world” is taking its cue from “the only democracy in the Middle East.”  I still remember how Mr. Netanyahu in his theatrical presentation at the UN General Assembly Meeting in September 2018 thanked the president of the USA for pulling out of the agreement signed with Iran during the term of Mr. Obama, while sending a message to Iran that Israel knows what they are doing.  Will Israel be the force behind the US to wage a new war against Iran this time.  Nothing would be surprising now that more American troops have already been sent to the bases in the region.  

Ironic indeed that the US has waged so many wars on other people’s lands in the name of democracy, while Israel continues to hold a whole population under occupation, and it has recently passed the Nation State Law in its Kenesset that would deprive 21% of its citizens most of their basic rights.  While the US has the liberty to impose sanctions on countries that do not abide by its rules, it takes harsh measures against any individual, or body that promotes the BDS (Boycott Divestment  and Sanctions) against Israel for violating international law, in the same way that Israel does.  

After seventy one years of dispossession  and fifty two years of a brutal occupation, we get a novice in political issues to come up with the “Deal of the Century.”  First they humiliate us, then they starve us and now they want to further humiliate us by  bribing  us into accepting money for our rights in a conference in Bahrain.  Thank you, but no thank you.  In our ethics lessons, we were taught that those who bribe and those who accept the bribery are just as guilty.  But who will convict the guilty in this case?   

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” ­--- Albert Einstein