Palestinians protest against Blinken’s visit to Ramallah

Scores of Palestinians demonstrated in Ramallah on Tuesday in protest at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the city.

The demonstration was organized by the National and Islamic Forces, an alliance of various Palestinian factions. 

Chanting “America is the head of the snake,” the protesters said they were opposed to “receiving the enemies of the Palestinian people on our land.” They also chanted: “Our people want the [rocket-propelled grenade] RPG.”

Some protesters carried placards reading: “Blinken, you are not welcome!”

The protesters also denounced the security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. “Security coordination is shameful,” the Palestinians chanted. “The Olso Accords are gone.”

“Blinken’s visit is the masquerade of politics and bad-will diplomacy in an attempt to fragment our unified struggle and further entrench a settler colonial and capitalist agenda that strikes at the trenches of the liberation movement,” a spokeswoman for the protesters said in a statement.

“We reject the imposition of the US to broker false negotiations between our colonizers and the defunct and corrupt leadership in Ramallah.”