Palestinians clash with Israeli troops in protests over Trump’s Jerusalem speech
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian protesters battled Israeli soldiers on Thursday in Jerusalem, Ramallah and other places in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, one day after President Trump announced that his administration would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Palestinian Authority called for a general strike in Palestinian cities. In Gaza, the Islamist Hamas movement urged its followers to ignite a third intifada, or uprising, against Israel. Shops in Jerusalem’s Old City were shuttered.
On the edge of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Israeli forces fired dozens of rounds of tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of Palestinian protesters gathering to air their anger over Trump’s statement.
“This will be bad,” said an ambulance driver as young men burned tires and pelted the soldiers with stones. Emergency vehicles ferried out the injured, with casualties reported on both sides. Thick black smoke and tear gas choked the air.
“Donald Trump said Jerusalem is for Israel, and I tell him, ‘No way, go to hell,’” said one 43-year-old woman in the crowd, a traditional Palestinian scarf wrapped around her face. “Jerusalem is for Palestine, forever,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.
“Trump made the wrong decision,” said 15-year-old Sarah Louay, who was making her way toward the demonstration carrying a Palestinian flag. “We will raise our voices for Jerusalem.”
Clashes also erupted in East Jerusalem and at the border fence between Israel and Gaza. In Bethlehem, tear gas filled streets strung with festive lights for Christmas. At one of the main checkpoints between Jerusalem and Ramallah, soldiers fired sponge bullets at children throwing stones from behind metal trash cans.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 51 Palestinians were injured in the various protests, with one person in critical condition.
Trump’s announcement Wednesday that he would move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his declaration that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital reversed a decades-old U.S. policy. Many fear that the step could spark another bloody conflict in the region, but it remains unclear how long the demonstrations will last. Some Palestinians said they felt emboldened after a perceived victory last summer following two weeks of protests over metal detectors installed at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called for a new uprising in the Palestinian territories and declared Friday a day of rage.
“Tomorrow should be a day of rage and the beginning of a broad movement for an uprising that I call the intifada of freedom of Jerusalem,” he said.
He called on the Palestinian Authority to stop security coordination with Israel and “enable the resistance in the occupied West Bank to respond to this blatant aggression.”
“Our people and factions of the resistance are in a permanent meeting to follow developments to confront this strategic threat that threatens the city of Jerusalem,” he added.
Israel’s army said it was preparing for an increase in violence in the coming days and that it has beefed up its troops in the West Bank, adding reinforcements to its combat intelligence and territorial defense units.
U.S. institutions in the region were also preparing for possible violent fallout. Reuters reported that a State Department communique has been sent to diplomats at the embassy in Tel Aviv with talking points to convey to Israeli officials.
“While I recognize that you will publicly welcome this news, I ask that you restrain your official response,” Reuters quoted the document dated Dec. 6 as saying. “We expect there to be resistance to this news in the Middle East and around the world. We are still judging the impact this decision will have on U.S. facilities and personnel overseas.”
The State Department restricted travel for U.S. government employees in Jerusalem and the West Bank, warning its citizens to avoid crowed areas.
In his televised speech Wednesday, Trump said that presidents before him had signed a waiver delaying the recognition of Jerusalem under the belief that it might advance the cause of peace. But, he said, “after more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result.”
“Therefore, I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” he said.
Successive U.S. administrations have held off moving the embassy from Tel Aviv since the mid-1990s, in line with an international consensus that Jerusalem’s status should be decided in a final peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Israelis see Jerusalem as their eternal and undivided capital, while Palestinians envision the predominantly Arab eastern part of the city as the future capital of a Palestinian state. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the U.S. move would galvanize the Palestinian struggle for independence.
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As long as Hamas is making announcements like this, the idea of peaceful co-existence is not even a dream:
"We declare an intifada until the liberation of Jerusalem and all of Palestine."