WASHINGTON (Middle East Eye) – As U.S. President Joe Biden travels to the Israeli-occupied territories and Saudi Arabia, where all eyes will be on whether or not the two move towards normalization, Middle East experts say that any rapprochement will lead to an increase in repression for Palestinians and activists in the Persian Gulf region.
Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as U.S. president will begin in the occupied territories and will conclude with a visit to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, where he will attend a summit with Arab leaders.
Some experts argue the visit appears to be a sign that Washington is forsaking any meaningful contribution toward solving the Zionist-Palestinian conflict and rather solely pursuing further Zionist ties with Arab countries.
“This is just completely throwing the Palestinians under the bus and pretending that this is peace,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, said during a webinar hosted by the Foundation for Middle East Peace on Monday.
Activists have said that the repression of Palestinians living under Zionist occupation has increased significantly over the past several years, particularly with the emergence of technologies like Blue Wolf tracking system, which captures images of Palestinians and matches them to a Zionist regime military database, and Pegasus spyware, which hacks users’ cellphones.
“What it means for the Palestinian public is increased repression, because these agreements have a component that deals with repressive technologies and the development of these technologies,” Dana el-Kurd, an assistant professor at the University of Richmond, said.
Arab citizens opposed to normalization as well as Persian Gulf activists argue that the establishment of Zionist ties with Arab states will narrow the space for protest and opposition and will lead to a rise in the quelling of dissent.
“These are different countries that need Israel’s assistance in repressing their own populations, not just because of the Abraham Accords, but in general,” Parsi said of Arab countries that have normalized ties with the regime.
Kurd said public polling shows that most Arab citizens are highly opposed to the normalization of relations with the regime.
“So when the state goes ahead and pursues these normalization deals at odds with societal sentiment, there is often opposition and dissent which is then cracked down on,” she said.