Palestinians react with outrage to Biden pick’s al-Quds remarks

“Yes and Yes,” Antony Blinken said during a testimony on Tuesday after being asked, “Do you agree that Jerusalem (Al-Quds) is the capital of Israel and do you commit that the United States will keep our embassy in Jerusalem (Al-Quds)?”

Former President Donald Trump rolled out a hugely controversial Middle East plan early last year touted as the “Deal of the Century,” under which he gave the Israeli regime huge concessions at the expense of the Palestinian people.

Those included recognizing al-Quds as the so-called exclusive capital of the occupying regime -- something Tel Aviv had been lobbying for throughout decades -- in spite of Palestinians’ age-old demand that the city’s eastern part serve as the capital of their future state. Trump also ordered relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

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

Hamas Spokesman: new US President Joe Biden’s Secretary of States’ comments are considered denial of Palestinian people’s long-established rights to their lands and holy sites.

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas stressed on Wednesday that the remarks of the new US President Joe Biden’s Secretary of States Antony Blinken about keeping American embassy in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) blatantly violates international law and resolutions.

Blinken’s comments are considered denial of Palestinian people’s long-established rights to their lands and holy sites and show a complete disregard of the Arabs at the official and popular levels, Hamas Spokesman Hazem Qasem said.

Such comments reaffirm the failure of betting on the consecutive US administrations over supporting the rights of our Palestinian people, Qasem added.

We must bet only on the abilities of our people to grab its rights, unified resistance strategy and rearrangement of the Palestinian house, he noted.

Islamic Jihad resistance group also called the remarks “a slap on the face of all who have pinned their hopes on the US administration.”

Spokesman Dawood Shihab said Blinken’s position indicated the US’s insistence on supporting the occupying regime and manipulate the truth. “All should know this that the US will never change. It is Palestinians [themselves], who should get rid of the occupation through long-term struggle and endeavor.”

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

Trump only executed the decision and now his successor cannot reverse the congressional designation, he reminded. Abdullah, however, urged the incoming US administration to recognize East al-Quds as Palestine’s capital and set up a consulate there so it can start diplomatic interactions with the Palestinians.