Palestinians protest embassy move,
Hundreds of Palestinians participated in demonstrations in three West Bank cities on Thursday to call on President-elect Donald Trump not to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Fatah, other PLO factions, and local political committees organized the demonstrations, which took place in Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron. At the demonstration in Martyrs’ Square in Nablus, hundreds of Palestinians turned out, waving Palestinian flags and holding signs that read, “No to relocating the US Embassy,” “Relocating the US Embassy is the new Balfour Declaration for the Palestinian people,” and, “The world is making progress while Trump administration is going backward.”
The demonstrators yelled chants against Trump’s campaign promise to relocate the embassy.
“We will not give up on our capital,” they called out. “Oh Trump, listen, listen, you have to rescind your decision.”
Mahmoud al-Aloul, a Fatah Central Committee member, told the demonstrators that moving the embassy would have dire consequences for the peace process.
“Moving the American embassy to Jerusalem for the [Palestinians] would mean the abrogation of signed treaties with Israel,” Aloul said, according to Al-Quds al-Arabi. “The Palestinians cannot accept anything except for east Jerusalem as their capital.”
Akram Rajoub, the Palestinian Authority’s governor of Nablus, who also delivered a speech at the demonstration, said relocating the embassy to Jerusalem would undo “hope.”
“Moving the embassy would mean that there is no hope for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and no national rights for the Palestinian people,” Rajoub said emphatically, adding, “There is nothing more dangerous than an entire people losing hope for the future.”
Palestinian officials have warned over the past two weeks that moving the embassy would have “devastating” and “catastrophic” consequences not only for the Palestinian territories, but also the region and the world.
Salah al-Yasidi, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, who attended the Nablus demonstration, told Palestine TV on the sidelines of the demonstration that he completely rejects the relocation of the embassy.
“The policies of this new Trump administration that affect Palestinian identity, Jerusalem’s identity including its Palestinian, human and international nature are completely rejected and all options will be on the table to confront them,” Yasidi said.