Which US president will be better for the Palestinians?

As the American presidential race heats up, Palestinians are weighing up its likely impact on their hopes to see an end to carnage in Gaza and rising annexationist pressures in the occupied West Bank.

While there is a sense in the West Bank that Kamala Harris’s replacing Joe Biden at the head of the democratic ticket could be positive news, many see looming disaster if Donald Trump wins, based on his actions during his first term and what they view as his flawed personal values.

“Business people don’t care about things except for money and profit and loss,” leading Palestinian businessman Samir Hulileh, CEO of the West Bank conglomerate Palestine Development and Investment Ltd (PADICO) told The Jewish Independent.

“They don’t care about history and nationality or what it means to be a citizen. Trump doesn’t care about all these values. He sees everything as a deal. We saw during his term that he was very careless and lacked any deep thought about this conflict and ending the occupation.”

“He is not the kind of person who can sort out this kind of conflict,” Hulileh said. “It’s not a deal about gas. It’s about land and people’s relationship to land.”

Issa Amr, a non-violent activist who works with left-wing Israeli opponents of the occupation in Hebron, adds: “For sure if Trump wins, it will be disaster for the Palestinian cause and people. He will do everything to please Netanyahu and his government and extremist settlers.”

By contrast, he says, “Harris won’t give the fanatic extremists what they want. She won’t give the Palestinians what they want in terms of a two-state solution, but at least she won’t give a green light for annexation of the West Bank.”