I am optimistic about Obama’s Israel visit

It would be unrealistic to expect a breakthrough from President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel, particularly given how pessimistic Palestinians have become over the US administration’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The hope is that the visit does not make things worse. But this deterioration can only be stopped if Palestinians themselves leverage the US president’s visit to push the issue of whether they deserve to live with dignity like any other sovereign nation.

Successive Israeli governments have not acknowledged Palestinians as a set of people like any other, let alone the Israelis. The Israeli government’s continued subordination and stripping of Palestinians of all they possess under the veil of security reveals the voracious appetite of an aggressive occupier. It has long been a tedious restatement of the obvious to protest at the outright theft and colonisation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem; the incapacitation of people in the West Bank with hundreds of humiliation points called checkpoints; the incarceration of Gaza and the blunt disrespect to the peace process.

It is obligatory that Palestinians lobby Obama on what Israel cites as “security”. They must clarify what it actually means by the term and how Israel skilfully uses it as a euphemism for continued and aggressive occupation. Even if no progress is sought to advance a resolution to the conflict, the carte blanche Israel affords itself under the name of security calls for scrutiny.

The livelihood of Palestinians cannot continue to be trampled down. How does exporting flowers from Gaza to the West Bank affect Israel’s security? Or barring ordinary people from travelling between Gaza, the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem to visit their next of kin? Or allowing economic development for Palestinians to rid themselves of complete dependence on foreign aid?

Equally important, how does separating Israelis and Palestinians and causing each to view the other as alien help protect Israel?

It would not be unreasonable to hope that Obama would punctuate his continued commitment to Israel’s security with the recognition that it need not stamp on the hope of an entire people for a dignified life. If this is not established, we can only assume that Israel will see it as the US administration’s readiness to underwrite Israel’s further refusal to contemplate a civilised conclusion to the conflict.

Many Palestinians do not fully understand how Obama ended up tipping the scales in the Middle East so much in favour of Israel after raising expectations so much at the outset of his presidency. However, while Obama has disappointed Palestinians, they also have themselves to blame for their internal divisions and for allowing the coupling of their cause with the so called Arab Spring.

Renewed focus by Palestinians on their full and deserved rights as a people should also have them separate their cause from the Arab Spring. The tendency to portray the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the light of developments in the Arab world was inevitable. However, it has afforded Israel ample space to continue its aggressive policies almost entirely unwatched.

I do not envy Obama on what must be a delicate visit. Yet, I am optimistic that we could help him help us and the Israelis by establishing a significant leap on principle. For a president of a country that upholds life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom and justice, I hope that Obama would be willing to remind Palestinians and Israelis of the equal human beings on the other side. That would constitute the beginnings of the US’s willingness to push towards an equitable peace.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd

Sami Abdel-Shafi is co-founder and senior partner at Emerge Consulting Group, a management consultancy in Gaza City.