Palestinians are perpetual victims of Netanyahu

James Zogby says the Israeli prime minister should not have been hosted by Barack Obama. Instead, he should have been called out for his behaviour.

Barack Obama with Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Saul Loeb / AFP

It was make up time when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington last week. The Obama administration sought to demonstrate that despite what the president referred to as their "minor difference" over the Iran deal, there were no hard feelings. Three-quarters of the Congress welcomed Mr Netanyahu with a letter denouncing Palestinian violence and incitement. And the Israeli PM was fawned over during an appearance at a liberal think tank.

Before, during and after the visit, official statements largely focused on two themes: Israel's security needs in the wake of the P5+1 agreement with Iran and how, despite Mr Netanyahu's testy relationship with Barack Obama, the US-Israel relationship remains as strong as ever. When Palestinians were discussed at all, it was most often as perpetrators of incitement and violence or as a problem to be solved so that Israel could live in peace.

President Obama did speak of the need to "lower the temperature between Israelis and Palestinians" and his concern "that legitimate Palestinian aspirations are met through a political process". For his part, Mr Netanyahu stated that he remained "committed to a vision of two states for two peoples, a demilitarised Palestinian state that recognises the Jewish state”. But in the overall scheme of things, the president's call to "lower the temperature" and Mr Netanyahu's response that he was open to discussing how to “lower the tension", appeared to be throw away lines.

What was missing was any forthright acknowledgement of the suffering of Palestinians under a harsh occupation that has abused and humiliated them and sucked the very life out of their hopes for the future. There was nothing new here, since the failure to address these realities has long characterised US policy discussions.

From the earliest days of the Zionist enterprise in Palestine, the West has portrayed the resultant conflict in a simplistic equation: Jewish humanity confronting the Arab problem or real people versus an abstraction. Even when Palestinian national rights were finally recognised, the discussion shifted only slightly with the call for a Palestinian state presented as necessary, not to free Palestinians from the nightmare of Israeli rule, but to ensure that Israel would remain a “Jewish state”.

There were occasions when leaders deviated from this dominant narrative. Bill Clinton spoke about Palestinian suffering in his address to the Palestinian National Council in 1998, as did Barack Obama in his 2009 Cairo address and his 2013 Jerusalem speech. But instead of marking a permanent change in our policy discourse, these appeared to have been one-off exercises. In any case, in recent years, there has been little mention of the cruel burdens faced by Palestinians. And no outright denunciation of Israel's cruel treatment of the captive people over whom it rules or any proposed action to change this deplorable situation.

We can talk about “lowering the temperature”, but unless the behaviours that raise that temperature are called out by name, nothing will change. Sympathy is, of course, due to victims of stabbings. And those who incite such behaviour should be called to account for their words.

But where is the sympathy for the thousands of families in Hebron who have been evicted from their homes to make way for extremist Israelis who have settled in the midst of their city? Where is the compassion for the fathers who have been subjected to humiliating treatment at Israeli checkpoints in front of their children or the children who have recoiled in shock at the sight of their fathers demeaned in this way? Where is the support for the innocent victims of collective punishment, whose only crime was to be related to someone who is alleged to have committed a violent crime? Where is the concern for the family members of those who have died at checkpoints because they were denied access to hospitals or the 50 per cent of young Palestinians who have no jobs and no hope for the future?

In the end, these Palestinian lives matter and must be protected. In the absence of concern for Palestinian lives, talk of one-state or two-states is empty. In the face of the systematic violations of Palestinian rights, it is an abomination to argue that a two-state solution is needed to protect Israel's Jewish character.

Palestinians are victims, invisible victims. It is this history of abuse that has led the very young to act as they have. Their desperate actions are deplorable and should not be celebrated. They should instead set off alarm bells causing us to reflect on how we in the West have contributed to their anger and despair by ignoring them for so long.

Mr Netanyahu should not have been hosted and feted in Washington, he should have been called out by policymakers for his behaviour. Until that occurs, nothing will change. Palestinians will remain invisible victims, denied their rights, and peace will remain as elusive as ever.

James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute

On Twitter: @aaiusa