1.3.1. Different Governments, Same Strategy The Biden Administration In continuation with the increased rate of colony construction that marked the first two years of former US President Trump’s term (2017 and 2018),100 the two latter years (2019 and 2020) were characterized by a 28 percent increase in the annual average of colony construction in the West Bank. In 2019 and 2020 combined, plans were advanced for 20,617 housing units and tenders were reportedly published for more than 4,000 housing units in east Jerusalem.101 It is striking, or perhaps not so, that although 2021 saw the end of the pro-Israeli Trump administration and the pro-expansionist Netanyahu government, it did not see a decrease in colony expansion. The Biden Administration operates largely in continuity with its predecessor when it comes to Palestinian issues. US President Joe Biden, inaugurated on January 2021, has publicly declared himself an uncritical supporter of Israel’s settler-colonial regime for decades, and has described himself as a Zionist on numerous occasions.102 In 2019 he went as far as saying that to place any conditions on US political and economic support for Israel would be “absolutely outrageous”.103 Biden’s empty speech in Bethlehem in his recent and brief visit to the region in July 2022 acknowledged Palestinians’ “grief and frustration” while refusing to acknowledge that it is Israel, with the US’s direct support, that is causing this very grief and frustration.104 He also reaffirmed his administration’s support of “two states along the 1967 lines with mutually agreed [land] swaps”.105 Concurrently, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has proved intransigent on whether a Palestinian state under such a plan would have its capital in Jerusalem, meaning that the Palestinians would be likely left, as under the Trump plan, with a mere suburb of 100 It has been argued that this correlation is relevant (and exists) due to the Trump’s administration’s unequivocal support for Israel, which has included both his 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite its status as illegally occupied under international law and the US policy shift that no longer considers Israeli colonies as illegal under international law. See Al Jazeera, ‘Pompeo: US no longer considers Israeli settlements illegal’ (Al Jazeera, 18 November 2019) <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/18/pompeo-us-no-longer-considers-israeli-settlements-illegal> accessed 3 October 2022. 101 Peace Now, ‘From De Jure to De Facto Annexation: 2020 Settlement Construction Report’ (Peace Now, March 201) <http://peacenow.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Construction-in-Settlements-2020.pdf> accessed 3 October 2022. 102 Ramzy Baroud, ‘“Zionist” Biden in His Own Words: “My Name Is Joe Biden, and Everybody Knows I Love Israel”’ (The Arab American News, 18 March 2022) <https://www.arabamericannews.com/2020/03/18/zionist-biden-in-hisown-words-my-name-is-joe-biden-and-everybody-knows-i-love-israel> accessed 3 October 2022. 103 Ibid. 104 Maureen Clare Murphy, ‘Biden’s moment of truth about Palestine’ (The Electronic Intifada, 15 July 2022) <https:// electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/bidens-moment-truth-about-palestine> accessed 3 October 2022. 105 The White House, ‘Remarks by President Biden and President Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority in Joint Press Statement’ (The White House, 15 July 2022) <https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speechesremarks/2022/07/15/remarks-by-president-biden-and-president-abbas-of-the-palestinian-national-authority-injoint-press-statement-bethlehem-west-bank/> accessed 3 October 2022. 20