Tel Aviv: For his first trip to the Middle East as POTUS Joe Biden has arrived in Israel. He will meet with representatives from Israel Palestine, and Saudi Arabia during the hurried four-day trip. Biden will be given a briefing on Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam air defence systems while taking part in a formal welcome ceremony on Wednesday at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. Later, he will travel to Jerusalem to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial.
Before meeting Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, on Friday in the West Bank, Biden will spend two days in Jerusalem for talks with Israeli authorities. Later, he travels to Saudi Arabia.
A stark message for President Joe Biden is written on billboards in the occupied West Bank by an Israeli human rights organisation that reads, "This is apartheid." B'Tselem is one of three civil rights organisations that claim Israel's treatment of Palestinians, both inside Israel and in the Palestinian territories, amounts to apartheid.
Israel and the US deny the accusation. The billboards were put up by B'Tselem in Bethlehem, where Biden will meet Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, on Friday, and in Ramallah, the location of the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority.
Hagai El-Ad executive director of B'Tselem alleged that numerous U.S. administrations have tolerated Israeli human rights violations without demanding accountability and urged Washington to alter its position on Israel.
A new strategic high-level conversation between Israel and the United States is being launched, and it will centre on technology. Just hours before U.S. President Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive in Israel for his first Mideast visit as president, the new talks were announced in a joint statement from Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Biden on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the partnership will concentrate on using cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence and other tech-based solutions, to combat major global issues like climate change and pandemic preparedness.
In their joint commitment, the leaders promised to "advance and protect critical and emerging technologies in accordance with our national interests, democratic principles, and human rights, and to address geostrategic challenges."
Biden's visit to the area in Israel and the occupied West Bank starts on Wednesday. On Friday, he is due to travel to Saudi Arabia.
Biden seeks to rebalance US relations with countries in Middle East
