Palestinians, Muslims worldwide hold ‘Day of Rage’ over al-Quds

OCCUPIED-A-QUDS: Thousands of Palestinians protested in a "day of rage" on Friday in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and in East al-Quds against US President Donald Trump’s recognition of the ancient city as Israel’s capital.

Across the Arab and Muslim worlds, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Friday, expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and outrage at the US move. As Friday prayers ended at the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds, worshippers made their way towards the walled Old City gates, chanting "al-Quds is ours, al-Quds is our capital," and "We don’t need empty words, we need stones and Kalashnikovs".

Some scuffles broke out between protesters and police. Trump’s decision to reverse decades of US policy and recognise al-Quds has been met by days of protests, although violence so far has largely been contained. By midday Friday there had been no reports of deaths in two days of demonstrations in the Palestinian territories. Thirty-one Palestinians were wounded on Thursday.

Clashes began in some spots of the West Bank after Friday prayers, though the unrest appeared less intense than the previous day. In al-Khalil and Bethlehem dozens of Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers who fired back with tear gas. In Gaza, calls for worshippers to protest sounded over mosque loudspeakers and dozens of youths burnt tyres on the main streets of the enclave, controlled by the Islamist Hamas group, and hundreds rallied toward the border with Israel.

Hamas has called for a new Palestinian uprising like the "intifadas" of 1987-1993 and 2000-2005 that together saw thousands of Palestinians and more than 1,000 Israelis killed. "Whoever moves his embassy to occupied al-Quds will become an enemy of the Palestinians and a target of Palestinian factions," said Hamas leader Fathy Hammad as protesters in Gaza burnt posters of Trump.

"We declare an intifada until the liberation of al-Quds and all of Palestine." Trump’s announcement on Wednesday has infuriated the Arab world and upset Western allies. The status of al-Quds has been one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians for generations. Israel considers all of al-Quds to be its capital.

Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future independent state of their own. Most countries consider East al-Quds, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed, to be occupied territory, including the Old City, home to sites considered holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians alike.

For decades, Washington, like most of the rest of the international community, held back from recognising al-Quds as Israel’s capital, arguing that its status should be determined as part of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. No other country has its embassy there.

The Trump administration argues that the peace process has become moribund, and outdated policies need to be jettisoned for the sides in the conflict to make progress. In Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, the leader’s religious affairs adviser said Trump’s stance was an affront to Islam and Christianity alike.

"America has chosen to elect a President that has put it in enmity with all Muslims and Christians," said the advisor, Mahmoud al-Habbash. Meanwhile, thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters marched after Friday prayers in Istanbul in an angry protest at the decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise al-Qus as the capital of Israel, an AFP correspondent said.

Chanting slogans including "al-Quds is ours and will remain so!" and "down with America, down with Israel", the protesters marched after prayers at the Ottoman Fatih Mosque in the centre of Istanbul, the correspondent added. Other protests were planned elsewhere in Istanbul and across Turkey on Friday.

"We consider al-Quds as the bastion of the Muslim community ... We are here to show our unity and our strength. Nobody can deter us," said protester Doguhan, 17. Merve, a student, said she and her colleagues had left their classes to attend the protest, describing the US decision as "null and void". "What Trump says is empty words and means nothing to us. Whenever we see the name of Israel on a map, we cross it out and write Palestine," she added.