US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week was aimed at concealing a minor crisis between Ramallah and Washington.
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Palestinian officials are disappointed that US President Joe Biden's administration has not kept its promise but have sought to avoid making the tensions public.
Much like the Palestine Liberation Organization's offices in Washington, plans to reopen a de facto US consulate in Jerusalem to Palestinians have stalled. The White House has asked the PA to carry out reforms in a number of fields as the basis for the US moves toward the Palestinians. Transparency and new blood in Palestinian institutions were just some of the Americans' demands. The other part concerned reforms in payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families.
The Palestinians later realized the reopening of the US consulate in Jerusalem was part of a package deal. They see this as an Israeli maneuver and claim the Israelis have influenced the Americans' position on the issue. This, of course, is the reason for their anger.
"The US has yet to open the consulate in Jerusalem, and there is a great disappointment," one PLO official told Israel Hayom. "America adopted the Israeli policy, but we won't agree to a condition that tells the Palestinians, 'Stop the stipends for prisoners, and in return, we will reopen the consulate. These are two separate issues. They must not be tied together."
He said, "There cannot be a situation in which someone in the Palestinian leadership can stop the salaries [from being paid] to terrorists. You call it salaries. We call it stipends. Every home has a prisoner. Even if ideas were raised that were aimed at changing the mechanism for paying the salaries to a freed prisoner, that doesn't mean the salary payments to prisoners and their families will cease. This is an unreasonable demand, and it is even more disappointing that it relies on an Israeli request. Moreover, what happens in practice shows us that the Americans think exactly like Israel – that there is no diplomatic solution for the Palestinians, and that is why they are introducing economic and civilian solutions."
Another Palestinian official expressed bewilderment at the request, which they called a "strange, unfortunate, and unacceptable" attempt by Israel to make things difficult for the PA.
"We are committed to it. It is our internal affair. At any rate, despite the crisis, we are continuing to talk to America and leaving the doors open."
Some in Ramallah, however, believe the White House could still open the consulate in the absence of reforms when the conditions are ripe.
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