Thousands of Palestinians rallied Tuesday in the West Bank to reject President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan and to express support for the Palestinian leadership as it tries to gain support at the United Nations for a resolution opposing the plan.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to deliver a speech at the UN later in the day, but members will not be voting on a draft resolution. Palestinian officials denied the resolution had been pulled, but diplomats said many members, including European countries, rejected the language in a draft that had circulated.
Trump's plan, announced at the White House on Jan. 28, sides with Israel on virtually all the most contentious issues of the decades-old conflict. It would allow Israel to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, including Jewish settlements that are home to hundreds of thousands of people and are considered illegal by most of the international community.
The Palestinians, who cut off ties with the US after Trump recognized disputed Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017, have adamantly rejected the plan.
Protesters packed Al-Manara Square in Ramallah, the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. They waved Palestinian flags and held banners condemning the plan.
Abbas has tried to rally international support against the Trump plan, with limited success. Israel and the Palestinians have not held peace talks in more than a decade.
The European Union issued a statement last week reiterating its support for a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines. The Palestinians want to establish a state in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel seized in a war with Arab countries a half-century ago.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the US initiative “departs from these internationally agreed parameters.”
The original draft resolution, co-sponsored by Tunisia and Indonesia and backed by the Palestinians, said the US plan violates international law and Security Council demands for a two-state solution based on borders before the 1967 Middle East war. It would have expressed the council’s determination “to examine practical ways and means to secure the full implementation of its relevant resolutions, including enforcement measures under Chapter 7 of the (UN) Charter,” which can be by military or non-military means.
The resolution had been expected to be put to a vote on Tuesday. But diplomats said many of its provisions were not acceptable to European and other council members.
Any resolution is virtually guaranteed to be vetoed by the United States, but the Palestinians had hoped that a strong show of support from other members of the council would help shore up international backing for their demands.
Separately, vandals slashed the tires of dozens of vehicles in an Arab town in northern Israel and spray painted slogans on buildings warning of Jewish-Arab “assimilation,” Israeli police said Tuesday.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suspects fled the area and police units had opened an investigation and collected evidence from the scene. The slogans in the village of Jish read: “Jews wake up, stop the assimilation.”
Police said the incident was being treated as a suspected hate crime, reported The Associated Press.
It appeared to be the latest case of the so-called “price tag” attacks that hardline nationalist Israelis have been known to carry out against Arabs in recent years. Most have been directed at Palestinians in response to attacks or perceived efforts by Israeli authorities to limit settlement expansion, while others have targeted Christian and Muslim sites.
In December, vandals slashed the tires of over 160 vehicles and sprayed slogans such as “Arabs=enemies” in a Palestinian neighborhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
It was unclear what motivated Tuesday's incident.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and vowed to "find the offenders and deal with them to the fullest extent of the law."
