FEATURING HUWAIDA ARRAF – President Donald Trump this week triumphantly hosted the signing of a deal between Arab nations and Israel at the White House. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel—a nation that they had not been battling in any form—in exchange for a promise of future weapons sales from the U.S. But Trump is casting the agreement as a “dawn of a new Middle East.” Generally U.S. Presidents have framed Middle East foreign policy as centering on Israel and the Palestinian territories but Palestinians have been left out of the equation. During remarks to the press about aid to Palestinians, Trump said, “if they’re not going to speak well of us, we’re not going to be involved.” Outside the White House, on Black Lives Matter Plaza, a coalition of 50 peace groups held a protest calling for no normalization of relations with Israel. 

Huwaida Arraf, Palestinian American lawyer and human rights activist, and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. She is also the former Chair of the Free Gaza Movement and currently the Palestine and Refugees correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali.