The US cannot continue ignoring Israel’s crimes in Jerusalem

The Biden administration has to get tough on Israel, if it wants to make a difference in the Middle East.

It has become almost a cliché. A new US administration takes over and lowers the expectations that it will step up efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, listing instead new foreign priorities, such as Afghanistan, Russia and China. The Biden administration has similarly indicated its lack of serious interest on the Palestinian issue. But violent protests and confrontations that broke out in occupied East Jerusalem earlier this month should force the US leadership from their apathy. On the first day of Ramadan, the Israeli authorities decided to break a cardinal pledge of respecting the right to worship by forcing their way into Al Aqsa mosque’s four minarets in order to silence the evening call to prayer, which coincided with a ceremony for the Israeli Remembrance Day held at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and attended by top Israeli officials.