West Bank Palestinians unmoved by Obama Ramallah visit
US President Barack Obama yesterday made his first visit to the West Bank, featuring brief talks and a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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Yet Obama’s visit was not well received among a vocal section of the Palestinian population, with protests leading up to his arrival in Ramallah and billboards featuring his image defaced.
Report in Ramallah
Despite the frequency of protests, the numbers in attendance were small, leading to questions about whether the Palestinians have any faith left in the US’s ability to resolve the Middle East's problems.
As Obama prepared to arrive in Ramallah Thursday morning, protesters gathered in the West Bank.
Four rockets were fired from Gaza, two of them hitting the southern Israeli town of Sderot.
Despite the protests in Ramallah being organised by the mainstream Palestinian political parties, Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, only 100 turned up.
Reema Nijal, a member of the General Union for Palestinian Women who attended the protest explained why there.
“It is a demonstration to reject American policy, the American role and the fact that America always stands beside Israel," she said. "We didn’t expect anything from Obama, because he has nothing in his basket, he has nothing to offer the Palestinians, he has nothing for peace!”
Nijal argued that true peace could only come through pressure on Israel to abide by international resolutions such as Palestine’s upgrade in status at the United Nations in November 2012, a measure that the US did not support.
For others the protest was an opportunity to counter Obama’s stated ideal that the two-state solution could resolve their problems.
“He has the power, he has more than enough power, but he doesn’t want peace," said Abdullah Tamimi, who was brandishing a placard declaring that he wanted to visit his father's village, which is now in Israeli territory. "He only wants peace for his nation.”
The low turnout may meant that many Palestinians are equally disenchanted with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his relations with both Israel and America.
An hour’s drive from Ramallah, close to the Maleh Adumim settlement, 250 protestors had erected a tent camp, named Afhad Younis, on the site of the proposed E1 settlement development on the eve of Obama’s visit.
“There is a difference between the project of the flagship of liberation and the leadership that leads the Palestinians," said one of them, Ahmed Abu Hashash. "The leadership is not following the tracks of liberation.”
E1 has been criticised by many international voices for its potential to bisect the entire West Bank, putting an end to the possibility of the two-state solution.
The camp is the fourth of its kind with the activists declaring that they wish to establish “facts on the ground” in opposition to Israeli settlement policy.
It is this same settlement policy that formed the centre of Obama’s speeches in Ramallah and Jerusalem. Yet it is clear that many Palestinians felt that they were empty political rhetoric.
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