Hamas hails Trump departure, calls on Biden to reverse unjust US policies towards Palestinians

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has hailed Donald Trump’s departure and called on new US President Joe Biden to reverse unjust policies pursued by his predecessor towards the Palestinian people.

“US President Joe Biden must reverse the course of misguided and unjust policies against our people and lay the foundations for security and stability in the region.” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Wednesday.

He went on to stress that there were no regrets at the departure of Donald Trump. 

Trump "has been the biggest source and sponsor of injustice, violence and extremism in the world and the direct partner of the Israeli occupying regime in the aggression against our people,” the spokesman said.

Barhoum called on the new president “to revoke all the decisions that attempted to liquidate the Palestinian cause, especially those related to Jerusalem al-Quds and refugees, and to necessarily respect the Palestinian people’s will and democratic choices.”

Biden had promised that his administration would restore Washington’s official policy of opposition to the settlement expansion. 

But on Tuesday Biden’s nominee for secretary of state Antony Blinken said the incoming administration will not reverse Trump’s controversial recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s "capital."

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Also on Thursday, Palestinian movements reacted with outrage to Blinken's remarks, with Hamas saying they run counter to the international laws and resolutions that recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as an occupied city.

Hazem Qasem, another Hamas spokesman, called the comments “an affront to all Arab nations and states.”

“Such remarks deny our people’s inalienable rights to their land and holy sites and are a blatant disregard for the entire Arab world at the official and popular levels,” he said. 

“The remarks reassert the futility of wagering on the successive US administrations to stand by our Palestinian people’s rights and highlight the need to wager on our people’s ability to extract their rights through a unified struggle strategy,” he added.

Islamic Jihad, Hamas’ fellow resistance group based in Gaza, called the remarks “a slap on the face of all who have pinned their hopes on the US administration.” 

Its spokesman Dawood Shihab said Blinken’s position indicates the US’s insistence on supporting the occupying regime and manipulating the truth.

“All should know that the US will never change. It is Palestinians who should get rid of the occupation through long-term struggle and endeavor.” 

Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official within the Palestinian Fatah movement based in the occupied West Bank where Jerusalem al-Quds is located, reminded that US Congress had decided to call al-Quds the Israeli regime’s so-called capital back in 1995. 

The administration of former President Trump broke with decades of the United States’ bipartisan show by not opposing Israeli settlements.

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The “deal of the century” that Trump brokered envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

Trump also ordered relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

Ever since the US’s moves, Palestinians have stopped recognizing any intermediary role by Washington in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in several resolutions. 

After Trump took office in December 2016, Israel stepped up settlement expansion in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which has pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”

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