RAMALLAH, West Bank — US President Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East failed to bring about any positive proposals for the Palestinians, and it was only limited to a one-hour meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem on July 15.

Since coming to office in January 2021, Biden has yet to offer tangible political support to the Palestinians, be it by resuming the political process with the Israeli side or by delivering on the promises he had previously announced to reopen the US Consulate in east Jerusalem and reopen the PLO office in Washington.

On July 14, a day before the visit, popular demonstrations broke out in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in rejection of both the US policy that is seen as biased toward Israel and Biden’s visit — but the protests fell on deaf ears on the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) side.

Ali al-Ahmad, a student at Al-Quds Open University, told Al-Monitor that the United States, which declared itself the sponsor of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for 30 years, provided support to Israel alone during that past period while turning a blind eye to all its violations. “So the fact that the PA was pinning its hopes on Biden’s visit is very weird in this context,” he said.