US state secretary Blinken's visit sparks protests in Gaza

The visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to the Palestinian Territories sparked protests by Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday evening, dozens of the Gazans joined a demonstration organised by the local factions to express their rejection of a meeting held between Blinken and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority.

Earlier in the same day, Blinken arrived in Ramallah as part of a three-day tour to the Middle East, including Egypt, Israel and Palestine, in a bid to urge Palestinians and Israelis to "calm tensions" while reiterating Washington's "ironclad" commitment to Israel's security despite the killing of more than 35 Palestinians by Israel in January of this year.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a conversation with Blinken at the presidential headquarters and discussed the latest Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank.

After the meeting, Abbas informed Blinken that Israel bears full responsibility for all the tensions in the West Bank, stressing that Israel insists on violating all the rights of the Palestinians.

Abbas stressed that Israel has undermined the two-state solution and violated the signed agreements, accusing the international community of helping the "Israeli occupation."

Furthermore, he said that his administration decided to stop all security coordination with Israel as a response to Israel's violence against the Palestinians.

However, the Palestinian president's remarks were not enough for Palestinians in Gaza, who had preferred that he had not met Blinken or any other US officials.

"I cannot understand the issue of meeting such officials, mainly as all of us [Palestinians] know that they support Israel and protect it from any attempt to punish it at the international levels," Khader al-Safady, who took part in the Gaza-based protest, said to The New Arab. 

"We refuse diplomatic relationships with both the United States and Israel (…) we have to declare that they both are our enemy," he said. In addition, he believes that neither Blinken nor his administration care for the Palestinians, particularly those killed by the Israeli army.

"There is no doubt that Blinken came here to blackmail the Palestinian Authority by offering more money in return for the continuation of political relations between the Palestinian leadership and Israel," Sami al-Harazeen, another Gaza-based protester, told TNA.

"We must raise our voices against all kinds of relationships between the Palestinian Authority and the US as it is not fair mediator who can sponsor any peace process with what so-called Israel," he added. "The US administration is biased towards Israel and its practices against the Palestinian people. It is the time for us to unify our efforts to fight Israel and its practices against us."

Since the beginning of this year, at least 35 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank, including eight minors and an elderly woman, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Talal Okal, a Gaza-based political analyst, described Blinken's visit to Palestine as "traditional," noting that the current position of the US administration is a step back from its previous position when it came to power two years ago in terms of form and content.

"So far, the US administration has not fulfilled any of its obligations and has not taken a single practical step except by repeating calls and positions that do not carry any content of a practical nature that gives credibility to these positions," he said. "How can the Palestinians believe anything positive will happen with his visit?"

Okal further elaborated that the decisions of the Palestinian leadership in terms of revoking security coordination was an attempt to pressure Israel, but it is not a deterrent, although it is important at present.

"I believe that the time has come to engage in a comprehensive popular confrontation with Israel and that the confrontation should not be limited to firing rockets from Gaza, but also the involvement of all Palestinians to form an Arab and international pressure factor on Israel," he said.