Is Removing Palestine from State Department Website Part of a New US ‘Peace Process’?

Removal of the Palestinian Territories from the US State Department’s list of countries on their website has sparked a backlash against the US administration and its foreign policy toward the Palestine-Israel conflict.

The removal of Palestine was noted first on Friday by a twitter user that posted a screenshot of the website’s list showing no Palestine, “Palestinian Territories” or the “Palestinian Authority” as it was listed previously on the list.

In time the US administration’s foreign policy toward the Palestinian Cause has been changing under Trump’s administration while claiming to seek peace efforts to end the decades-long conflict, the removal of Palestine’s name and denying its existence won’t help anyone but make things worse.

Magid has shared the archived version of the State Department’s website during the time of former president, Barack Obama and the previous administrations, in which “Palestinian Territories” is included in the “Near Eastern Affairs: Countries and Other Areas” page where extensive information on Gaza and the West Bank can be found.

The step has worried Palestinians, Arabs and many others who questioned the US peace efforts toward the conflict while explicitly denying the existence of a whole country and its people.

Officials in the Palestine Authority (PA) have also had their takes and slammed the US for removing Palestine’s name from their lists.

On the other hand, US President Donald Trump was asked about the change during a press conference in France yet he referred reporters to his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when asked whether the removal of Palestine is “conducive” to his peace efforts.

For Palestinians, this step has meant more than a change made by the State Department. 

Earlier this year, the State Department has issued the annual report on human rights and removed the description of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights as “occupied” which sparked outrage.

Shortly after, the US had officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan which suggests a similar pattern in the US’s policy toward Palestine.