As the dust settles on the 2024 US presidential election, Palestinians in the West Bank are left pondering the potential impact of Donald Trump’s victory on their already precarious situation. Amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war and a crippled economy, many argue that things cannot possibly get worse, while others fear that a Trump administration may bring added unpredictability to an already desperate reality.
A Consensus of Despair
On the streets of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, a provisional consensus has emerged: the US election result will have little real impact on the ground, as the situation has already hit rock bottom. “It will not make a big difference,” remarked Eyad Barghouti, a retired university teacher. “What Biden was doing before with a low profile, Trump will be more vocal about.”
Many Palestinians argue that the worst-case consequences of a Trump presidency—loss of freedom, erosion of justice, economic collapse, and the threat of war—are already their daily reality. They point to the ongoing devastation in Gaza, streamed live on social media, as evidence that the liberal order mourned by the West has been complicit in their suffering.
“What we have seen has made us believe that the whole of western ideology is a lie,” a librarian in his 50s said, preferring to remain anonymous. “They never cared about us. What they care about is the good of Israel.”
Room for Further Despair
While the initial gut reaction in Ramallah is that Trump’s return will not significantly alter the region’s disastrous trajectory, many acknowledge that there is still room for the already dismal prospects of Palestinians to darken further. Barghouti warned that the “violence could get worse” and that Trump in the White House could add unpredictability to despair, likening it to “a monkey holding a bomb.”
Lama Sheikha, who works in a printing shop, fears that the US election result will “make Israel even stronger,” with the US increasingly deferring to Israeli decision-making. This could have severe implications for the UN relief agency UNRWA, which provides essential services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and virtually the entire population of Gaza. Trump previously suspended US funding to UNRWA in 2018.
Economic Devastation and Settler Violence
The West Bank economy has been hit hard, with GDP falling by more than 20% over the past year and unemployment hovering around 35%. It is likely only pressure from the Biden administration that has prevented Israel’s far-right finance minister from permanently withholding the customs tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Without these funds and UNRWA, the West Bank would be reduced to an economic wasteland.
Meanwhile, militant settler violence against Palestinians has risen exponentially, with many killed or injured while harvesting olive groves, which are frequently torched. Just this week, a gang of masked militant settlers infiltrated a Ramallah suburb, throwing petrol bombs and shooting at firefighters. While the Biden administration has imposed sanctions on some militant settler leaders, it is doubtful whether a Trump administration would maintain such measures.
“People are leaving already. They are being forced to leave,” Sheikha lamented. “Now it will happen on a bigger scale, it will be harder on us, with the economic situation, and people are being attacked on their land as they harvest olives.”
Annexation Looms, Resistance Stirs
Palestinian aspirations for full nationhood have suffered another devastating setback with Trump’s re-election, a fact celebrated by Israeli settlers who see it as an opportunity to advance the annexation of the West Bank. Annexation is already happening by stealth, with parts of the territory being transferred from military to civilian control as a step towards absorption into Israel.
Some Palestinians, like Barghouti and his librarian friend, believe that by enabling more overt extremism from the Israeli right, a Trump White House may inadvertently galvanize resistance. They point to the emergence of Hezbollah in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which ultimately contributed to Israel’s withdrawals in 2000 and 2006. “We are hoping for the same thing here – real resistance,” the librarian said.
As the Palestinian people grapple with an uncertain future under a second Trump term, the only certainty seems to be that their struggle for freedom, justice, and self-determination is far from over. In the face of escalating violence, economic hardship, and the looming threat of annexation, the question remains: will despair give way to resistance, or will it lead to a mass exodus from a land they refuse to abandon?
