1 of 5 | On Saturday, President Joe Biden threatened to begin issuing visa bans on “extremists” who commit violence against civilians in the West Bank and called on the international community to support Gaza after the war. On Wednesday, Biden welcomed world leaders to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders Week. Photo by Justin Tafoya/U.S. Department of State/UPI |
License PhotoNov. 18 (UPI) — President Joe Biden threatened Saturday to begin issuing visa bans on “extremists” who commit violence against civilians in the West Bank and called on the international community to support Gaza after the war.
Biden, in a Washington Post op-ed, also said a cease-fire in Gaza “is not peace,” even as members of his own party have called for a cease-fire. He called for Gaza and the West Bank to be eventually “reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.”
“The international community must commit resources to support the people of Gaza in the immediate aftermath of this crisis, including interim security measures,” he wrote in the Washington Post.
Biden said the United States could begin to issue visa bans against those who commit violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable,” Biden wrote in the Washington Post. “The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.”
Biden said the rising antisemitism and Islamophobia that’s escalated since the war between Israel and Hamas began must stop.
“We can’t stand by when hate rears its head,” he said. “We must, without equivocation, denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate and bias. We must renounce violence and vitriol and see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans.”
