Palestinians announce embassy move date to be ‘day of rage’
Palestinians plan mass protests against the opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem.
By ADAM RASGONUpdated: MAY 9, 2018 11:53Dozens protest for Palestinian right of return on Israel's Independence Day(photo credit: YAHIA AMAL JABARIN/ TPS)
Senior PLO official Ahmad Majdalani said Tuesday that May 14, the day the US is expected to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, will be “a day of rage.”Many Palestinians and Palestinian officials have expressed anger and frustration with the American administration since US President Donald Trump initiated the relocation of the US Embassy in Israel in December.The Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership has long hoped east Jerusalem will become the capital of a future Palestinian state and demanded that the city’s final status be determined in negotiations with Israel. Israel considers both the eastern and western halves of Jerusalem to be its capital.U.S. Embassy roadsigns go up in Jerusalem, May 7, 2018 (Reuters)“The fourteenth of this month will be a huge, popular day of rage everywhere,” Majdalani said, according to the Voice of Palestine, the official Palestinian Authority radio station. “Our people will express their rejection of relocating the embassy to occupied Jerusalem.”A large delegation of US officials including Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, are slated to arrive in Jerusalem next week for a ceremony to mark the opening of the new embassy.During past “days of rage,” groups of Palestinians have marched toward Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank and clashed with Israeli forces there. PA security forces on such days have sometimes barred Palestinians from reaching Israeli forces, preventing clashes from taking place.A Palestinian security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Jerusalem Post, “We want to maintain calm and stability and we plan to do that in the upcoming weeks. We do not have an interest in returning to the destruction of the Second Intifada.”However, the official contended that if PA President Mahmoud Abbas decides to back “major protests,” there would be “little the security forces could do to prevent clashes.”Abbas has long backed peaceful protest against Israel’s military rule, but has not undertaken major efforts to consistently mobilize masses to protest it.
