JERUSALEM — Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Jerusalem in protest as American and Israeli officials celebrated the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.
As US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner celebrated the inauguration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and major Trump donor Sheldon Adelson, Palestinian protesters outside were met by armed Israeli police forces who heavily suppressed demonstrations and arrested several protesters.
Though the several speeches given during the ceremony made no mention of Jerusalem’s 350,000 Palestinian residents, protesters rose their voices in opposition to the move, which broke with decades of US foreign policy in the region.
‘America crossed every red line’
Protesters gathered in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona, about 200 meters away from where the ceremony was taking place, due to a series of road closures by Israeli police.
“The fact that they closed off the streets to block protesters, and sent hundreds of police forces to attack us and arrest us, just shows that they know what they are doing is illegal,” Mohammed Abu al-Hummus, a local activist, told Mondoweiss.
“They tried to keep us far away, so that we could not interrupt their ceremony, and so they could celebrate in peace,” he said.
Abu al-Hummus told Mondoweiss that the transfer of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “crossed every red line,” and criticized the presence of Dallas-based Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress — who has previously called Islam “a heresy from the pit of hell” — at the ceremony.
“Trump made this move to appease his Zionist Christian base and make them happy, without care for the consequences it will have on Palestinian lives,” Abu al-Hummus said.
“In America, they have the statue of liberty and pride themselves on freedom, but then they come to Palestine and support the racism of the Israeli occupation,” he said. “This move shows us that they do not understand the true meaning of democracy.”
Mamoun Razeq, a resident of Jerusalem who participated in the protests, expressed similar sentiments.
“The American government is not, and will never be part of peace,” Razeq told Mondoweiss amid the crowd of protesters.
“The transfer of the embassy is a dangerous attack on the Palestinian people, and has created tensions that no one can predict the outcome of.”
“This is a provocation against the Palestinian people, and this is why I am here today,” he said. “I have a right over this land as a Jerusalemite, and I must defend it, even if just with my voice.”
Palestinian writer and Jerusalemite Bodour Hassan told Mondoweiss that the embassy move only solidified the distrust Palestinians have long had in the American government.
“We do not accept the American embassy to be anywhere in Palestine. The transfer of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was done to provoke Palestinians,” she said.
“This just shows us the real face of the US. We saw this face before, but to transfer the embassy solidified what we already knew about the US.”
No faith in the international community
Among the hundreds of protesters in Jerusalem was former prisoner and famed lawyer Shirin al-Issawi.
“I came here as a Palestinian woman and Jerusalemite, to raise my voice against the American support of the Israeli occupation and its attacks and crimes against the Palestinian people,” Issawi told Mondoweiss.
“I am here today, because as a Palestinian, it is my duty. If we did not come here as Palestinians and Jerusalemites to defend our land, who else will support us?,” she asked.
“We have always stood alone against the Israeli occupation’s policies, without any help from the international community, and we will continue to protest this transfer of the embassy, and to make sure our rights are upheld here in Palestine and in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine.”
Al-Issawi criticized the celebration of the embassy opening by Israeli officials and citizens, saying “their celebration today shows how brutal and monstrous they are, and the racism that they practice in this land.”
Despite the Israeli suppression of protests and disregard for Palestinian opposition to the move, al-Issawi said that she, thousands others like her, will continue to protest.
“We will keep resisting until we free all of Palestine, not just Jerusalem and the West Bank, but all of Palestine,” she said.
This view is not shown on US TV News.
https://www.juancole.com/2018/05/millennium-excluded-jerusalem-iran.html
Palestinians should be placed on that hill that the Israeli soldiers are slaughtering Palestinians from. Trump, Netanyahu, other Israeli officials, the arrogant prick Kushner, Ivanka the prickess put out in those open areas butt ass naked right where the Palestinians are being murdered.
Trump and the other war criminals should be told to run for cover and the Palestinians on the hill can make their decisions whether to level the killing fields. That would be justice
Maybe, O maybe, the international community will wake up t Israel’s crimes, as Catholic Church woke up to crimes by priests against kids, as Hollywood (and some places in politics) woke up to crimes by powerful men against powerless women.
Crimes by powerful against powerless are always ignored by media and police because the latter are part of the power structure. How can the international community (heads of governments, CEOs of immense corporations) ignore 70 years of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians? Easily! They ignore so much more and are good at ignoring.
Watch the greatest crime of all — the ignoring of man-made climate-disruption (aka global warming) and the refusal of most governments to commit the funds — similar to military budgets — needed to effect climate restoration by removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. See needless world-wide death and destruction happen gradually before your eyes.
And of course see Palestine swept under every available rug.
Israel is extremist and toxic for non evangelical goys. The next Dem Prez might close the new “embassy”
https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/ncr-today/support-israel-continues-see-widening-partisan-divide
National Catholic Reporter
“Support for Israel continues to see a widening, partisan divide”
Mar 23, 2018 by Ra’fat Al-Dajani
EXCERPTS:
“The results of a recent Pew Research Center poll have revealed some unexpected findings when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, namely a widening partisan divide on the question of whether Americans sympathize more with Israelis or Palestinians on the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a partisan divide that is the widest at any point since 1978.
“Support for Israel in the broad sense, or as a strategic asset, remains very strong, with the percentage of Republicans, since 2001, sympathizing more with Israel than the Palestinians increasing 29 percentage points, from 50 percent to 79 percent. It is with Democrats and Independents, however, that the drop in sympathy for Israel has been precipitous.
“Among Democrats in general, only 27 percent said they sympathized more with Israel, reflecting a dramatic drop in sympathy for Israel of 11 points among Democrats since 2001, from 38 percent to 27 percent.
“Some other numbers worth examining can be found when support among Democrats is broken down. While moderate and conservative Democrats continue to sympathize more with Israel (35 percent) than the Palestinians (17 percent), that number has dropped 18 points since 2016, from 53 percent to its current 35 percent. The share of liberal Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians has also declined 14 points since 2016, from 33 percent to 19 percent.
“Pro-Israeli leaders and groups have picked up on the danger of sympathy and support for Israel becoming one more point of sharp partisan divide in the increasing, partisan polarization under President Trump, both in Congress and among the American public.
“Nowhere have the alarm bells begun to ring louder on this issue than at the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where there has been a growing recognition that navigating through the shoals of an ever more polarized political landscape is the new challenge for an organization that has always prioritized bipartisanship.
“AIPAC’s leadership recognizes that the pendulum of American politics swings both ways, and that Israel, as an issue, would suffer from being kicked around as a political football. It could well end up becoming one as politically divisive and as politicized as abortion or gun control.”
“The Trump presidency has only made this navigation more perilous. On the one hand, Trump has delivered on policies on AIPAC’s agenda, such as moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem; pushing Congress to scrap or toughen up the Iran nuclear deal; cutting funds to the Palestinians; and speaking out forcefully against U.N. members who diverge from the U.S. on its Israel policy.”
“The unintended consequence for AIPAC of Trump’s unabashed support has been the alienation of some Jewish Democrats who once felt at home with the lobby group. A former AIPAC board member described it this way: ‘I feel the right has taken over the organization and there is no respect for other opinions … It’s not a place for me anymore.’”
NBC News opened this morning (Tuesday) with a report from Richard Engel in Israel. He showed a brief interview with David Friedman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, in front of the new U.S. embassy (which has Donald J. Trump’s name etched in stone). When asked about the deaths in Gaza, Friedman said that Hamas needs to end its siege of Gaza. Once again, the Zionist inversion of reality is truly breathtaking.
CBS News this morning opened with extensive coverage of Mrs. Trump’s kidney; Gaza was the second story, starting about 7 minutes into the program. Holly Williams reported from Gaza. Her report was better than Engel’s, for what that’s worth.
I don’t know how ABC handled it.