Palestinians call for ‘day of rage’ to mark Trump visit
RAMALLAH: Palestinian factions in the central occupied West Bank city of Ramallah have called on the Palestinian people to take part in a “Day of Rage” tomorrow, during the planned visit by US President Donald Trump to the occupied Palestinian territory.
Trump left the US for his first trip abroad as commander-in-chief on May 19, arriving in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. He is scheduled to arrive in Israel today, to meet Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
The following day, Trump will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, and then stop in occupied East Jerusalem, to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall – reportedly to become the first sitting US president to visit the contested holy site that stands adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Trump first met Abbas in Washington DC earlier this month, and Netanyahu in February.
In a statement released on Saturday titled: “A call for unity and assimilation with our brave prisoners”, Ramallah-based Islamist and nationalist factions urged the public to join rallies to express their rejection of the resumption of peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel under US sponsorship.
The statement called for a strike yesterday in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Israel, to coincide with Trump’s visit.
Members of the Higher Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel have affirmed their support for the strikes, initially called for by the Palestinian national committee set up to support a mass hunger strike in Israeli prisons that entered its 35th day yesterday.
The hunger strike’s committee also called for activists in West Bank villages and rural areas to continue blocking off roads to traffic in an expression of solidarity for the hunger strike.
Signatories of the statement also highlighted that they opposed American bias towards the Israeli occupation, as a growing number of Palestinians have expressed disillusionment with peace talks brokered by consecutive US administrations that have simultaneously pledged billions in military aid to Israel.
Reports emerged last week that Trump’s national security adviser, HR McMaster, twice refused to say whether the Western Wall was part of Israel, while American diplomats in East Jerusalem said the Western Wall was part of the occupied West Bank and refused to hold talks with Israeli officials about Trump’s planned visit to the site. Ma’an