8 dec 2017
This video shows doctors treating the injured baby:
Updated (Dec 8, 2017 @ 22:50): Protests grew on Friday throughout the West Bank (including Jerusalem), in Gaza and across the Arab world, against Donald Trump’s Wednesday statement about Jerusalem being the ‘capital of Israel’, effectively denying the basic rights of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in Jerusalem.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said one man A 30-year old man, identified as Mahmoud al-Masri, after the Israeli army fired live rounds at protesters, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
It added that 153 Palestinians were injured by Israeli army fire, including three who suffered serious wounds, in several parts of the Gaza Strip.
In related news, the Palestinian Red Crescent said its medics provided treatment to more than than 767 people were injured by Israeli forces on Friday, in several parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
61 of the wounded Palestinians were shot with live Israeli army fire, at least three of them suffered serious injuries, in addition to 200 Palestinians who were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, 479 who suffered the severe effects of teargas inhalation, and 27 who suffered various cuts and bruises.
On Friday at night, at least fifteen Palestinians were injured, including a infant who suffered serious wounds, after the Israeli Air Force fired missiles near Sheikh Zayed residential towers, north of Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Among the wounded are several elderly Palestinians, who suffered moderate wounds, in in their homes in residential towers and surrounding homes, in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the injuries ranged from severe to mild, and included a number of gunshot wounds from live ammunition fired by Israeli troops. Other injuries included asphyxiation from tear gas and injuries from rubber-coated steel bullets.
Protests were held in six areas in the Gaza Strip, along the border with Israel.
Israeli troops attacked all of these protests with live ammunition and so-called non-lethal weapons, resulting in the death of one protester and the critical injury of another. The Israeli military issued a statement, “[Israeli] soldiers are responding with riot dispersal means. During the riots [Israeli] soldiers fired selectively towards two main instigators and hits were confirmed.”
Firing live ammunition at non-violent protesters is a direct violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Tires were burned in the city of Bethlehem, where Christians from around the world had just days ago gathered in celebration of the Christmas tree in Manger Square, the church built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born. To protest the U.S. President’s statement denying Palestinian rights, Christian leaders in the city decided to engage in a ‘Christmas blackout’ protest, turning off the lights of the Christmas tree and other holiday decorations.
The army used live fire, in addition to rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs and concussion grenades in attacking the protesters.
The soldiers and undercover officers also invaded the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation, in Beit Jala nearby city, looking for wounded Palestinians.
In Jerusalem, thousands of Palestinian Muslim worshipers attempted to reach the al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, for Friday prayers. Many were blocked by Israeli police checkpoints, and prevented from reaching the mosque.
Protesters gathered outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem – an area that has been a Palestinian area for over 2000 years, until Israeli settlers began to push out the Palestinian population over the past ten years through violent takeovers of Palestinian homes and apartment buildings, forcing out the Palestinian families who lived there and forcing them into homelessness.
Overnight, at least thirteen Palestinians were abducted by Israeli troops in different areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank, as protests that began Thursday continued through the night.
Around the world, protests continued on Friday, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in non-violent marches in Amman, Jordan, in Turkey, in Malaysia, in Istanbul, Turkey and in other cities and towns across the world. At least 10,000 people were estimated at the protest in Istanbul, and more than 5,000 gathered in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. In Jakarta, Indonesia, protesters gathered outside the U.S. embassy, some holding signs reading “Trump is the enemy of humanity”.
All of these protests were peaceful, and none resulted in injuries, except those in the Palestinian Territories, where the protest marchers were violently assaulted by the occupying Israeli military.
Palestinian killed, 379 injured in protests against Trump's move
One Palestinian was killed and 379 were injured on Friday in the "Day of Rage" protests over the US announcement of Jerusalem as the capital of "Israel".
Spokesman for Gaza's Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qedra, announced that a 29-year-old Palestinian was killed and 134 others were injured in confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces in several areas east of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent crews also said on Friday that they have attended to at least 245 injuries in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
These confrontations followed calls by Hamas movement and other Palestinian factions on the Palestinian people to take to the streets in protest at Donald Trump's recognition of Occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Under the instructions of the chief of general staff of the Israeli army, Gadi Eizenkot, a state of alert was announced and reinforcements were summoned as clashes escalated across the West Bank and east of the Gaza Strip.
Updated (Dec 8, 2017 @ 22:50): Protests grew on Friday throughout the West Bank (including Jerusalem), in Gaza and across the Arab world, against Donald Trump’s Wednesday statement about Jerusalem being the ‘capital of Israel’, effectively denying the basic rights of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in Jerusalem.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said one man A 30-year old man, identified as Mahmoud al-Masri, after the Israeli army fired live rounds at protesters, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
It added that 153 Palestinians were injured by Israeli army fire, including three who suffered serious wounds, in several parts of the Gaza Strip.
In related news, the Palestinian Red Crescent said its medics provided treatment to more than than 767 people were injured by Israeli forces on Friday, in several parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
61 of the wounded Palestinians were shot with live Israeli army fire, at least three of them suffered serious injuries, in addition to 200 Palestinians who were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, 479 who suffered the severe effects of teargas inhalation, and 27 who suffered various cuts and bruises.
On Friday at night, at least fifteen Palestinians were injured, including a infant who suffered serious wounds, after the Israeli Air Force fired missiles near Sheikh Zayed residential towers, north of Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Among the wounded are several elderly Palestinians, who suffered moderate wounds, in in their homes in residential towers and surrounding homes, in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the injuries ranged from severe to mild, and included a number of gunshot wounds from live ammunition fired by Israeli troops. Other injuries included asphyxiation from tear gas and injuries from rubber-coated steel bullets.
Protests were held in six areas in the Gaza Strip, along the border with Israel.
Israeli troops attacked all of these protests with live ammunition and so-called non-lethal weapons, resulting in the death of one protester and the critical injury of another. The Israeli military issued a statement, “[Israeli] soldiers are responding with riot dispersal means. During the riots [Israeli] soldiers fired selectively towards two main instigators and hits were confirmed.”
Firing live ammunition at non-violent protesters is a direct violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Tires were burned in the city of Bethlehem, where Christians from around the world had just days ago gathered in celebration of the Christmas tree in Manger Square, the church built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born. To protest the U.S. President’s statement denying Palestinian rights, Christian leaders in the city decided to engage in a ‘Christmas blackout’ protest, turning off the lights of the Christmas tree and other holiday decorations.
The army used live fire, in addition to rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs and concussion grenades in attacking the protesters.
The soldiers and undercover officers also invaded the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation, in Beit Jala nearby city, looking for wounded Palestinians.
In Jerusalem, thousands of Palestinian Muslim worshipers attempted to reach the al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, for Friday prayers. Many were blocked by Israeli police checkpoints, and prevented from reaching the mosque.
Protesters gathered outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem – an area that has been a Palestinian area for over 2000 years, until Israeli settlers began to push out the Palestinian population over the past ten years through violent takeovers of Palestinian homes and apartment buildings, forcing out the Palestinian families who lived there and forcing them into homelessness.
Overnight, at least thirteen Palestinians were abducted by Israeli troops in different areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank, as protests that began Thursday continued through the night.
Around the world, protests continued on Friday, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in non-violent marches in Amman, Jordan, in Turkey, in Malaysia, in Istanbul, Turkey and in other cities and towns across the world. At least 10,000 people were estimated at the protest in Istanbul, and more than 5,000 gathered in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. In Jakarta, Indonesia, protesters gathered outside the U.S. embassy, some holding signs reading “Trump is the enemy of humanity”.
All of these protests were peaceful, and none resulted in injuries, except those in the Palestinian Territories, where the protest marchers were violently assaulted by the occupying Israeli military.
Palestinian killed, 379 injured in protests against Trump's move
One Palestinian was killed and 379 were injured on Friday in the "Day of Rage" protests over the US announcement of Jerusalem as the capital of "Israel".
Spokesman for Gaza's Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qedra, announced that a 29-year-old Palestinian was killed and 134 others were injured in confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces in several areas east of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent crews also said on Friday that they have attended to at least 245 injuries in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
These confrontations followed calls by Hamas movement and other Palestinian factions on the Palestinian people to take to the streets in protest at Donald Trump's recognition of Occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Under the instructions of the chief of general staff of the Israeli army, Gadi Eizenkot, a state of alert was announced and reinforcements were summoned as clashes escalated across the West Bank and east of the Gaza Strip.
Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church, Atallah Hanna, on Friday expressed his rejection of the decision of the US president, Donald Trump, to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying that this decision has unveiled the true face of the US biased policy.
Speaking to al-Jazeera TV channel, Hanna stressed that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine and described Trump's decision as a "provocative and aggressive move".
Hanna added, "The US decision means nothing to us," noting that there is a systematic process aimed at imposing full Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Archbishop Hanna called on Christian and Islamic bodies around the world to adopt a clear position against the US decision and declare their support for the Palestinian people and their just cause.
Speaking to al-Jazeera TV channel, Hanna stressed that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine and described Trump's decision as a "provocative and aggressive move".
Hanna added, "The US decision means nothing to us," noting that there is a systematic process aimed at imposing full Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Archbishop Hanna called on Christian and Islamic bodies around the world to adopt a clear position against the US decision and declare their support for the Palestinian people and their just cause.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Friday opened fire at Palestinian ambulances and journalists during the protests taking place east of the Gaza Strip against the US announcement of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Spokesman for Gaza's Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qedra, said that the IOF deliberately targeted a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance with rubber bullets east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip with no injuries reported.
Medics told the PIC reporter that they were attacked with tear gas canisters while trying to evacuate injured protesters during the clashes that erupted east of Khan Younis.
Quds Press reported that the Palestinian journalist Mustafa Hassouna was injured while several others suffered breathing problems after being targeted with tear gas canisters.
Mahmoud al-Masri, 30, was killed and at least 55 civilians were injured during the confrontations that broke out with the IOF soldiers in 8 different areas east of the Gaza Strip.
Spokesman for Gaza's Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qedra, said that the IOF deliberately targeted a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance with rubber bullets east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip with no injuries reported.
Medics told the PIC reporter that they were attacked with tear gas canisters while trying to evacuate injured protesters during the clashes that erupted east of Khan Younis.
Quds Press reported that the Palestinian journalist Mustafa Hassouna was injured while several others suffered breathing problems after being targeted with tear gas canisters.
Mahmoud al-Masri, 30, was killed and at least 55 civilians were injured during the confrontations that broke out with the IOF soldiers in 8 different areas east of the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of demonstrations have been organized around the world in protest against US President Donald Trump’s decision to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem.
Rights activist Rami Abdo told PIC reporter that the number of demonstrations organized in the non-Arab world on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is expected to reach 521 protests.
132 protests were organized in Turkey, 91 others in US, 22 in Germany, and 14 in Sweden, he added.
On Wednesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a televised speech from the White House. Trump’s decision was met by a barrage of criticism and condemnations from many Arab and world leaders, while protests took places in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and different parts of the Arab world.
Rights activist Rami Abdo told PIC reporter that the number of demonstrations organized in the non-Arab world on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is expected to reach 521 protests.
132 protests were organized in Turkey, 91 others in US, 22 in Germany, and 14 in Sweden, he added.
On Wednesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a televised speech from the White House. Trump’s decision was met by a barrage of criticism and condemnations from many Arab and world leaders, while protests took places in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and different parts of the Arab world.
Tunisian President Baiji Caid Essebsi called on the American ambassador on Friday for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by US President Donald Trump.
The Tunisian President will convey his dissatisfaction about this, according to one of his advisers.
Tunisia supports the Palestinians in their efforts to establish their own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, the sources added.
On Friday morning, hundreds of people took to the streets of the city of Tunis to demonstrate peacefully against Trump's decision.
The US tightened the security measures around the embassy in the capital city, as in many other countries.
On Wednesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a televised speech from the White House.
Trump’s decision was met by a barrage of criticism and condemnations from many Arab and world leaders, while protests took places in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and different parts of the Arab and Islamic world.
The Tunisian President will convey his dissatisfaction about this, according to one of his advisers.
Tunisia supports the Palestinians in their efforts to establish their own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, the sources added.
On Friday morning, hundreds of people took to the streets of the city of Tunis to demonstrate peacefully against Trump's decision.
The US tightened the security measures around the embassy in the capital city, as in many other countries.
On Wednesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a televised speech from the White House.
Trump’s decision was met by a barrage of criticism and condemnations from many Arab and world leaders, while protests took places in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and different parts of the Arab and Islamic world.
Finally, US President Donald Trump pulled the plug.
The so-called peace process, two-state solution, ‘land-for-peace formula’ and all the other tired clichés have been long dead and decomposing. But Trump’s announcement on Wednesday to officially recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel has also laid to rest the illusion that the US was ever keen on achieving a just and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors.
What is left to be said by those who have placed the Palestinian national project of liberation on hold for nearly three decades, waiting for the US to fulfill its self-designated role of an ‘honest peace broker’?
The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared a ‘day of rage’ in response to Trump’s announcement. Way to deflect attention from the real crisis at hand: the fact that the PA has miserably failed by leasing the fate of Palestine to Washington, and, by extension to Israel as well.
The Recent Love Affair
“I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Trump said in Washington. The embattled president has done what many had asked him not to do. But the truth is, US foreign policy has been bankrupt for years. It was never fair, nor did it ever intend to be so.
Trump’s words from Washington were a tamed version of his statement before the Israel lobby last year.
In March 2016, Republican presidential candidate Trump delivered his famous speech before the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Then, he revealed the type of politician he truly is. By Washington’s standards, he was a ‘good politician’, devoid of any values.
In his speech he made many promises to Israel. The large crowd could not contain their giddiness.
Of the many false claims and dangerous promises Trump made, a particular passage stood unique, for it offered early clues to what the future administration’s policy on Israel and Palestine would look like. The signs were not promising:
“When the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially. That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States,” he declared, a fraudulent statement that was preceded with a loud applause and ended with even a louder cheer.
“We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem,” he announced. The mixed cheers and applause were deafening.
The truth is, however, Trump’s love affair with Israel is actually relatively recent. He had made several pronouncements in the past that in fact irked Israel and its powerful backers in the US. But when his chances of becoming the Republican nominee grew, so did his willingness to say whatever it takes to win Israel’s approval.
But isn’t this the American way of doing politics?
Now that Trump is president, he is desperate to maintain the support of the very constituency that brought him to the White House in the first place. The rightwing, conservative, Christian-evangelical constituency remains the foundation of his troubled presidency.
So, on December 4, Trump picked up the phone and began calling Arab leaders, informing them of his decision to announce a move that has been delayed for many years: relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Arabs fumed, or needed to play that part, for such a move would surely create further destabilization in a region that has been taken on a destructive course for years. Much of that instability is the outcome of misguided US policies, predicated on unwarranted wars and blind support for Israel.
Moreover, the pro-US Middle Eastern camp has itself been struggling under constant conflict, internal splits and a growing sense of American abandonment.
Why Jerusalem
If Trump declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel, it will seem that a cornerstone of US foreign policy in the Middle East has been removed. There can be no talk about a ‘two-state solution’, a ‘Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital’, and all the other platitudes that defined the US political discourse in the region for decades.
Worse, United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 have served as the trademark of US approach regarding what has been termed the ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’ since 1967. The resolutions call for Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied since the war of 1967. Since then, East Jerusalem has been recognized by international law and even by every country that extended diplomatic ties with Israel as an integral part of the Occupied Territories.
Trump’s recent decision constitutes a total US reversal in its approach, not only regarding its own working definition of peacemaking, but to the entire Middle East, considering that Palestine and Israel have been at the center of most of the region’s conflicts.
It may have appeared that in March 2016, when Trump elatedly announced his intentions to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, he spoke like every American politician would: making lofty promises that cannot be kept.
Perhaps, but there are factors that made this embassy move an attractive option for the Trump administration:
The US is currently experiencing unprecedented political instability and polarization. Talks of impeaching the president are gaining momentum, while his officials are being paraded before Department of Justice investigators for various accusations, including collusion with foreign powers.
Under these circumstances, there is no decision or issue that Trump can approach without finding himself in a political storm, except one issue, that being Israel. Being pro-Israel has historically united the US’s two main parties, the Congress, the media and many Americans, lead among them Trump’s political base.
Indeed, when the Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, purportedly violating its legislative role, Trump’s interest in politics was quite haphazard and entirely personal.
Collusion
The Congress has gone even further. Attempting to twist the arm of the White House, it added a clause, giving the administration till May 1999, to carry out the Congress’s diktats or face a 50 percent cut in the State Departments’ budget allocated to “Acquisition and Maintenance of Buildings Abroad.”
It was an impossible ultimatum. The US, by then, had positioned itself as an ‘honest peace broker’ in the peace process – a political framework that defined its entire American foreign policy outlook in the Middle East.
To avoid violating the Congress’ public law, and to maintain a thread, however thin, of credibility, every US president has signed a six-month waiver; a loophole in Section 7 of the law that allowed the White House to postpone the relocation of the embassy.
Fast forward to Trump’s AIPAC speech. His pledge to move the embassy then seemed merely frivolous and opportunistic.
That was the wrong assessment, however. Collusion between the Trump’s team and Israel began even before he walked into the Oval House. They worked together to undermine UN efforts in December 2016 to pass a resolution condemning Israel’s continued illegal settlement in the Occupied Territories, including Jerusalem.
Names of individuals affiliated with the administration’s policy towards Israel spoke volumes of the messianic nature of the government’s future outlook. David Friedman, Trump’s bankruptcy attorney was picked as US Ambassador in Israel; Jason Greenblatt was appointed as the administration’s top Middle East negotiator. Both men were known for their extremist, pro-Israel views – views that were seen as dangerous even by mainstream US media.
Chosen to lead the ‘peace’ efforts was Trump’s son-in-law and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s good friend, Jared Kushner. Trump’s dedication to Israel was clearly not fleeting.
By accepting Israel’s illegal annexation of Occupied East Jerusalem, Trump ends an American political gambit that lasted decades; supporting Israel unconditionally, while posing as a neutral, honest party.
Although his move is aimed at appeasing Israel, its US allies in government, and his base of fundamentalists and conservatives, he is also shedding a mask that every US president has worn for decades.
However, Trump’s decision, while it will upset the delicate political equilibrium in the Middle East, will neither cancel nor reverse international law. It simply means that the US has decided to drop the act, and walk wholly into the Israeli camp, further isolating itself from the rest of the world by openly defying international law.
And by doing so, it will, oddly enough, negate the paradoxical role it carved for itself in the last 50 years – that of peacemaker.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
The so-called peace process, two-state solution, ‘land-for-peace formula’ and all the other tired clichés have been long dead and decomposing. But Trump’s announcement on Wednesday to officially recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel has also laid to rest the illusion that the US was ever keen on achieving a just and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors.
What is left to be said by those who have placed the Palestinian national project of liberation on hold for nearly three decades, waiting for the US to fulfill its self-designated role of an ‘honest peace broker’?
The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared a ‘day of rage’ in response to Trump’s announcement. Way to deflect attention from the real crisis at hand: the fact that the PA has miserably failed by leasing the fate of Palestine to Washington, and, by extension to Israel as well.
The Recent Love Affair
“I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Trump said in Washington. The embattled president has done what many had asked him not to do. But the truth is, US foreign policy has been bankrupt for years. It was never fair, nor did it ever intend to be so.
Trump’s words from Washington were a tamed version of his statement before the Israel lobby last year.
In March 2016, Republican presidential candidate Trump delivered his famous speech before the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Then, he revealed the type of politician he truly is. By Washington’s standards, he was a ‘good politician’, devoid of any values.
In his speech he made many promises to Israel. The large crowd could not contain their giddiness.
Of the many false claims and dangerous promises Trump made, a particular passage stood unique, for it offered early clues to what the future administration’s policy on Israel and Palestine would look like. The signs were not promising:
“When the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially. That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States,” he declared, a fraudulent statement that was preceded with a loud applause and ended with even a louder cheer.
“We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem,” he announced. The mixed cheers and applause were deafening.
The truth is, however, Trump’s love affair with Israel is actually relatively recent. He had made several pronouncements in the past that in fact irked Israel and its powerful backers in the US. But when his chances of becoming the Republican nominee grew, so did his willingness to say whatever it takes to win Israel’s approval.
But isn’t this the American way of doing politics?
Now that Trump is president, he is desperate to maintain the support of the very constituency that brought him to the White House in the first place. The rightwing, conservative, Christian-evangelical constituency remains the foundation of his troubled presidency.
So, on December 4, Trump picked up the phone and began calling Arab leaders, informing them of his decision to announce a move that has been delayed for many years: relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Arabs fumed, or needed to play that part, for such a move would surely create further destabilization in a region that has been taken on a destructive course for years. Much of that instability is the outcome of misguided US policies, predicated on unwarranted wars and blind support for Israel.
Moreover, the pro-US Middle Eastern camp has itself been struggling under constant conflict, internal splits and a growing sense of American abandonment.
Why Jerusalem
If Trump declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel, it will seem that a cornerstone of US foreign policy in the Middle East has been removed. There can be no talk about a ‘two-state solution’, a ‘Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital’, and all the other platitudes that defined the US political discourse in the region for decades.
Worse, United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 have served as the trademark of US approach regarding what has been termed the ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’ since 1967. The resolutions call for Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied since the war of 1967. Since then, East Jerusalem has been recognized by international law and even by every country that extended diplomatic ties with Israel as an integral part of the Occupied Territories.
Trump’s recent decision constitutes a total US reversal in its approach, not only regarding its own working definition of peacemaking, but to the entire Middle East, considering that Palestine and Israel have been at the center of most of the region’s conflicts.
It may have appeared that in March 2016, when Trump elatedly announced his intentions to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, he spoke like every American politician would: making lofty promises that cannot be kept.
Perhaps, but there are factors that made this embassy move an attractive option for the Trump administration:
The US is currently experiencing unprecedented political instability and polarization. Talks of impeaching the president are gaining momentum, while his officials are being paraded before Department of Justice investigators for various accusations, including collusion with foreign powers.
Under these circumstances, there is no decision or issue that Trump can approach without finding himself in a political storm, except one issue, that being Israel. Being pro-Israel has historically united the US’s two main parties, the Congress, the media and many Americans, lead among them Trump’s political base.
Indeed, when the Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, purportedly violating its legislative role, Trump’s interest in politics was quite haphazard and entirely personal.
Collusion
The Congress has gone even further. Attempting to twist the arm of the White House, it added a clause, giving the administration till May 1999, to carry out the Congress’s diktats or face a 50 percent cut in the State Departments’ budget allocated to “Acquisition and Maintenance of Buildings Abroad.”
It was an impossible ultimatum. The US, by then, had positioned itself as an ‘honest peace broker’ in the peace process – a political framework that defined its entire American foreign policy outlook in the Middle East.
To avoid violating the Congress’ public law, and to maintain a thread, however thin, of credibility, every US president has signed a six-month waiver; a loophole in Section 7 of the law that allowed the White House to postpone the relocation of the embassy.
Fast forward to Trump’s AIPAC speech. His pledge to move the embassy then seemed merely frivolous and opportunistic.
That was the wrong assessment, however. Collusion between the Trump’s team and Israel began even before he walked into the Oval House. They worked together to undermine UN efforts in December 2016 to pass a resolution condemning Israel’s continued illegal settlement in the Occupied Territories, including Jerusalem.
Names of individuals affiliated with the administration’s policy towards Israel spoke volumes of the messianic nature of the government’s future outlook. David Friedman, Trump’s bankruptcy attorney was picked as US Ambassador in Israel; Jason Greenblatt was appointed as the administration’s top Middle East negotiator. Both men were known for their extremist, pro-Israel views – views that were seen as dangerous even by mainstream US media.
Chosen to lead the ‘peace’ efforts was Trump’s son-in-law and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s good friend, Jared Kushner. Trump’s dedication to Israel was clearly not fleeting.
By accepting Israel’s illegal annexation of Occupied East Jerusalem, Trump ends an American political gambit that lasted decades; supporting Israel unconditionally, while posing as a neutral, honest party.
Although his move is aimed at appeasing Israel, its US allies in government, and his base of fundamentalists and conservatives, he is also shedding a mask that every US president has worn for decades.
However, Trump’s decision, while it will upset the delicate political equilibrium in the Middle East, will neither cancel nor reverse international law. It simply means that the US has decided to drop the act, and walk wholly into the Israeli camp, further isolating itself from the rest of the world by openly defying international law.
And by doing so, it will, oddly enough, negate the paradoxical role it carved for itself in the last 50 years – that of peacemaker.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
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Three Jewish settlers on Thursday evening were injured when Palestinian young men hurled stones at buses carrying them on Road 60 between the illegal settlement on Mount al-Khalil (Hebron) and Occupied Jerusalem.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that one settler was injured aboard a bus traveling to Kiryat Arba settlement when it came under stone-throwing attack near Halhoul town.
Two other settlers were wounded in a similar attack at the junction of Kfar Etzion settlement near Beit Fajjar town in Bethlehem.
Palestinian young men in different areas of the occupied West Bank launched stone-throwing attacks on settlers and their vehicles in response to their illegal presence in their areas and the US recognition of Jerusalem as an Israeli capital.
US president Donald Trump’s signing of a declaration last Wednesday that claimed that Jerusalem was an Israeli capital triggered a widespread angry intifada (uprising) in Palestinian areas.
About 116 Palestinians suffered injuries in violent confrontations on Thursday with the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza and other areas of Palestine.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that one settler was injured aboard a bus traveling to Kiryat Arba settlement when it came under stone-throwing attack near Halhoul town.
Two other settlers were wounded in a similar attack at the junction of Kfar Etzion settlement near Beit Fajjar town in Bethlehem.
Palestinian young men in different areas of the occupied West Bank launched stone-throwing attacks on settlers and their vehicles in response to their illegal presence in their areas and the US recognition of Jerusalem as an Israeli capital.
US president Donald Trump’s signing of a declaration last Wednesday that claimed that Jerusalem was an Israeli capital triggered a widespread angry intifada (uprising) in Palestinian areas.
About 116 Palestinians suffered injuries in violent confrontations on Thursday with the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza and other areas of Palestine.
Emboldened by US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Israeli government is considering pushing ahead with plans to build around new 14,000 settler units in the city.
Under the plan, pursued by Israeli housing minister Yoav Galant, 5,000 units would be built in the northern parts of the city and just outside Ramallah, Israeli media reported Thursday night.
There would be 1,000 units built in East Jerusalem, while the remaining 8,000 units were to be built in the city's western neighborhoods.
Trump declared the city as Israel's capital on Wednesday and said that he would relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a move that has drawn fire from the Palestinians and their backers around the world.
“Following President Trump’s historic declaration, I intend to advance and strengthen building in Jerusalem,” Galant was quoted as saying.
"There are no more excuses. There are no more reasons why we should not build in the city, when the president of the United States views it as the undisputed capital of Israel," other cabinet members were quoted as saying by Israeli media.
Much of the international community regards the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
Last month, the European Union urged the Israeli regime to stop plans for the construction of new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, warning that such moves undermine peace efforts.
Israel Decides To Build 7000 Units For Colonists In Occupied East Jerusalem
Israeli “Housing Minister,” former commander of the Southern Command in the Israel Army Galant, have decided, Thursday, to push forward a plan for the construction of 14000 units in Jerusalem, including 7000 for Jewish colonists in East Jerusalem.
Galant’s plan aims at building 5000 units in Atarot illegal colony, which was constructed on Palestinian lands in Qalandia, northwest of occupied Jerusalem, in addition to 2000 units in Pisgat Zeev illegal colony, also in East Jerusalem. The plan also aims at building 5000 units in two areas, in West Jerusalem.
Galant said that after the “historic recognition of U.S. President Donald Trump of Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, as the capital of Israel, there is no need, no excuse, for not building and expanding in the city.”
Earlier Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump’s declaration, is “equal to the Balfour Declaration” of 1917, and “Israel’s control” of East Jerusalem in 1967, and described Trump’s decision as “one of the most important moments in Zionist history.”
“I told my friend, Donald Trump, you are about to make history,” he added, “And this is indeed what he did.”
Under the plan, pursued by Israeli housing minister Yoav Galant, 5,000 units would be built in the northern parts of the city and just outside Ramallah, Israeli media reported Thursday night.
There would be 1,000 units built in East Jerusalem, while the remaining 8,000 units were to be built in the city's western neighborhoods.
Trump declared the city as Israel's capital on Wednesday and said that he would relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a move that has drawn fire from the Palestinians and their backers around the world.
“Following President Trump’s historic declaration, I intend to advance and strengthen building in Jerusalem,” Galant was quoted as saying.
"There are no more excuses. There are no more reasons why we should not build in the city, when the president of the United States views it as the undisputed capital of Israel," other cabinet members were quoted as saying by Israeli media.
Much of the international community regards the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
Last month, the European Union urged the Israeli regime to stop plans for the construction of new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, warning that such moves undermine peace efforts.
Israel Decides To Build 7000 Units For Colonists In Occupied East Jerusalem
Israeli “Housing Minister,” former commander of the Southern Command in the Israel Army Galant, have decided, Thursday, to push forward a plan for the construction of 14000 units in Jerusalem, including 7000 for Jewish colonists in East Jerusalem.
Galant’s plan aims at building 5000 units in Atarot illegal colony, which was constructed on Palestinian lands in Qalandia, northwest of occupied Jerusalem, in addition to 2000 units in Pisgat Zeev illegal colony, also in East Jerusalem. The plan also aims at building 5000 units in two areas, in West Jerusalem.
Galant said that after the “historic recognition of U.S. President Donald Trump of Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, as the capital of Israel, there is no need, no excuse, for not building and expanding in the city.”
Earlier Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump’s declaration, is “equal to the Balfour Declaration” of 1917, and “Israel’s control” of East Jerusalem in 1967, and described Trump’s decision as “one of the most important moments in Zionist history.”
“I told my friend, Donald Trump, you are about to make history,” he added, “And this is indeed what he did.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that its medical teams treated 108 Palestinians for injuries from Israeli attacks on Palestinian protesters Thursday, including wounds received from live rounds.
The medics treated wounded Palestinians who had participated in protests in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilia, Jenin, Hebron, Khan Younis and central Gaza.
In Nablus, more than 10,000 protesters took to the streets in several areas of the city and surrounding areas. 57 were wounded by invading Israeli forces in Huwwara, Beit Furiq, and Nablus city.
32 Palestinian protesters were wounded by Israeli troops in Tulkarem, in the northern part of the West Bank. Most were wounded by rubber-coated steel bullets fired at the demonstrators.
8 Palestinians were wounded in Qalqilia – three of whom were taken to the hospital after being hit by rubber-coated steel bullets. The others were treated at the scene.
No injuries were reported in the town of Tubas, where massive protests also took place.
In Bethlehem, thousands of people marched in the streets – dozens of people suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, and five were hospitalized after having been hit by rubber-coated steel bullets.
updated from:
Protests across the West Bank and Jerusalem attacked by Israeli military; 50 injured
Dec 8, 2017 @ 11:38 Video
Following Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that Jerusalem is an Israeli city, effectively denying the rights of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have lived there since time immemorial, protests erupted in cities and towns across the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces responded to the protest marches and rallies with a massive military force, invading Palestinian neighborhoods and firing live ammunition, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and other lethal and semi-lethal weapons at the demonstrators.
At least fifty Palestinians have been injured by the Israeli military assaults on the largely non-violent protests. Nine of the injured were shot by live bullets fired by the Israeli military.
In Ramallah, in the central West Bank, four protesters were shot with live rounds, and eight were wounded by rubber-coated steel bullets.
Another five people were shot with live ammunition by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
The protests spontaneously erupted without prior organizing, following Trump’s announcement. Palestinian leaders called for three days of rage to protest the event, and Christian leaders in Bethlehem turned off the Christmas lights across the city and in Manger Square in protest.
Protests took place in at least a dozen cities and towns. In Bethlehem, a young boy was treated for severe effects of tear gas inhalation. In addition, three people were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, while another adult was hospitalized from tear gas inhalation. In Qalqilia district, in the northern part of the West Bank, five people were injured from the so-called ‘less-than-lethal’ weapons fired by the Israeli military.
In Hebron, a large march took place consisting of thousands of people. Israeli troops attacked the march with tear gas, forcing the crowd to scatter. The soldiers then chased down youth, who began throwing stones at the invading military force. Three Palestinians were hospitalized.
The medics treated wounded Palestinians who had participated in protests in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilia, Jenin, Hebron, Khan Younis and central Gaza.
In Nablus, more than 10,000 protesters took to the streets in several areas of the city and surrounding areas. 57 were wounded by invading Israeli forces in Huwwara, Beit Furiq, and Nablus city.
32 Palestinian protesters were wounded by Israeli troops in Tulkarem, in the northern part of the West Bank. Most were wounded by rubber-coated steel bullets fired at the demonstrators.
8 Palestinians were wounded in Qalqilia – three of whom were taken to the hospital after being hit by rubber-coated steel bullets. The others were treated at the scene.
No injuries were reported in the town of Tubas, where massive protests also took place.
In Bethlehem, thousands of people marched in the streets – dozens of people suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, and five were hospitalized after having been hit by rubber-coated steel bullets.
updated from:
Protests across the West Bank and Jerusalem attacked by Israeli military; 50 injured
Dec 8, 2017 @ 11:38 Video
Following Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that Jerusalem is an Israeli city, effectively denying the rights of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have lived there since time immemorial, protests erupted in cities and towns across the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces responded to the protest marches and rallies with a massive military force, invading Palestinian neighborhoods and firing live ammunition, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and other lethal and semi-lethal weapons at the demonstrators.
At least fifty Palestinians have been injured by the Israeli military assaults on the largely non-violent protests. Nine of the injured were shot by live bullets fired by the Israeli military.
In Ramallah, in the central West Bank, four protesters were shot with live rounds, and eight were wounded by rubber-coated steel bullets.
Another five people were shot with live ammunition by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
The protests spontaneously erupted without prior organizing, following Trump’s announcement. Palestinian leaders called for three days of rage to protest the event, and Christian leaders in Bethlehem turned off the Christmas lights across the city and in Manger Square in protest.
Protests took place in at least a dozen cities and towns. In Bethlehem, a young boy was treated for severe effects of tear gas inhalation. In addition, three people were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, while another adult was hospitalized from tear gas inhalation. In Qalqilia district, in the northern part of the West Bank, five people were injured from the so-called ‘less-than-lethal’ weapons fired by the Israeli military.
In Hebron, a large march took place consisting of thousands of people. Israeli troops attacked the march with tear gas, forcing the crowd to scatter. The soldiers then chased down youth, who began throwing stones at the invading military force. Three Palestinians were hospitalized.
Earlier Friday, dozens of Israeli soldiers surrounded and isolated Kufur Qaddoum town, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, ahead of the weekly protest against the Annexation Wall and colonies.
The army stopped and searched dozens of cars, and interrogated many Palestinians, while inspecting their ID cards.
Morad Eshteiwi, the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Annexation Wall and Colonies in Kufur Qaddoum, said the army is trying to prevent the Palestinians, along with Israeli and international peace activists, from marching.
He added that these military measures will not prevent the procession, adding that the protesters will practice their legal right, and will protest the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump, to recognize occupied Jerusalem as the unified capital on Israel, and the preparations for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Whatever measures Israel’s takes, and regardless of the siege and roadblocks, our protest will be held at noon,” Eshteiwi stated, “We will all voice our rejection to this immoral, hostile and illegal decision, and Trump’s support to this criminal occupation of our land.”
The army stopped and searched dozens of cars, and interrogated many Palestinians, while inspecting their ID cards.
Morad Eshteiwi, the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Annexation Wall and Colonies in Kufur Qaddoum, said the army is trying to prevent the Palestinians, along with Israeli and international peace activists, from marching.
He added that these military measures will not prevent the procession, adding that the protesters will practice their legal right, and will protest the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump, to recognize occupied Jerusalem as the unified capital on Israel, and the preparations for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Whatever measures Israel’s takes, and regardless of the siege and roadblocks, our protest will be held at noon,” Eshteiwi stated, “We will all voice our rejection to this immoral, hostile and illegal decision, and Trump’s support to this criminal occupation of our land.”
The Israeli army has significantly increased its deployment across the occupied West Bank, including in and around Jerusalem, and all border areas in the Gaza Strip, in anticipation of massive protests against claims by Donald Trump, and his U.S. Administration, recognizing Jerusalem as the unified capital of Israel, and denying the Palestinians their legitimate right to the city.
The Arabs48 news website said the army estimates that dozens of thousands of Palestinians will hold massive protests in various areas of the West Bank, border areas in Gaza, and even in many Palestinian towns, in historic Palestine.
Israeli army and security devices also believe many Palestinians will conduct individual attacks against soldiers and colonists, in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.
The decision to increase the military deployment was made following a meeting, Thursday, between various military, police and security officials.
It is worth mentioning that hundreds of soldiers and officers have already been deployed in East Jerusalem, especially the Old City, Wadi al-Jouz and al-‘Isawiya.
The Arabs48 news website said the army estimates that dozens of thousands of Palestinians will hold massive protests in various areas of the West Bank, border areas in Gaza, and even in many Palestinian towns, in historic Palestine.
Israeli army and security devices also believe many Palestinians will conduct individual attacks against soldiers and colonists, in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.
The decision to increase the military deployment was made following a meeting, Thursday, between various military, police and security officials.
It is worth mentioning that hundreds of soldiers and officers have already been deployed in East Jerusalem, especially the Old City, Wadi al-Jouz and al-‘Isawiya.