Sign up for our newsletter.

Quality journalism. Progressive values. Direct to your inbox.

Follow us:

Join the small group of generous readers who donate, keeping Common Dreams free for millions of people each year. Every donation—large or small—helps us bring you the news that matters.

Please support non-profit Common Dreams today.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

There are less than 48 hours left in this Mid-Year Campaign and our independent journalism needs your help today.
If you value our work, please support Common Dreams. This is our hour of need.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

Join the small group of generous readers who donate, keeping Common Dreams free for millions of people each year. Without your help, we won’t survive.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

A Palestinian man throws eggs at a car from the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem carrying an American delegation in Beit Jala in the occupied West Bank on May 22, 2018. (Photo: AFP)

'You Are Not Welcome in Palestine': US Delegation Egged in Occupied West Bank

Though more than 60 Palestinians were killed last week by IDF soldiers in Gaza, nobody from the U.S. consulate was reported injured by the egg-throwers

Jon Queally

A delegation of U.S. officials on their way to an event in the occupied West Bank on Monday were most certainly not welcome as their convoy was met with a volley of eggs and Palestinians holding signs while entering the town of Beit Jala, outside Bethlehem.

According to a photographer at the scene, the angered residents held up signs that read: "US government you are not welcome in Palestine" and "Hey Trump, Jerusalem is not the capital of Zion."

Palestinian men holding signs with anti-US slogans sit atop a car carrying members of a US delegation to protest their visit to the occupied West Bank on May 22, 2018. (Photo: AFP)

The display of animous towards the delegation came exactly one week after the Trump administration officially moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem—a move seen as a direct assault on the so-called "peace process" and the demand that East Jerusalem ultimately become the future capital of an independent Palestinian state.

Both the Israeli government and its U.S. backers are under fire by human rights organizations and the international legal community for the ongoing occupation as well as the killing of more than 60 people by IDF soldiers who opened fire on demonstrators in Gaza, also last Monday.

Issam Younis, general director of the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, condemned what many characterized as a massacre carried out by the Israeli government and also put the onus squarely on the U.S government which offers the Israelis both military aid and unwavering political backing despite what legal experts say amount to war crimes against the Palestinian people.

"Palestinians have raised their voices in peaceful demand of their basic human rights and an end to the closure and blockade of Gaza that maintains their dire living conditions; Israel responded by deploying snipers to fire onto unarmed protesters," said Younis. "The use of lethal and other excessive force is a serious violation of international law, yet our efforts to challenge the policy from within Israel have been met with support for the status quo. The U.S. must therefore implement its own laws and refuse to enable the continuation of the open-fire policy through its military aid."

Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership of Fatah has frozen ties with the White House over its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said that by moving U.S. embassy, Trump had "canceled [the U.S.] role in the peace process" and called the building itself a "new settlement" in Jerusalem.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Comments

Just a few days left in our crucial Mid-Year Campaign and we might not make it without your help.
Who funds our independent journalism? Readers like you who believe in our mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. No corporate advertisers. No billionaire founder. Our non-partisan, nonprofit media model has only one source of revenue: The people who read and value this work and our mission. That's it.
And the model is simple: If everyone just gives whatever amount they can afford and think is reasonable—$3, $9, $29, or more—we can continue. If not enough do, we go dark.

All the small gifts add up to something otherwise impossible. Please join us today. Donate to Common Dreams. This is crunch time. We need you now.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

Latest News

See all
An abortion rights protester flies an upside-down U.S. flag

Naomi Klein: The US Is in the Midst of a 'Shock-and-Awe Judicial Coup'

"The rolling judicial coup coming from this court is by no means over," warned the author of "The Shock Doctrine."

Jake Johnson ·

Ed Markey

Markey, Bowman Join Climate Coalition in Urging SCOTUS Expansion

"We cannot sit idly by," said Markey, "as extremists on the Supreme Court eviscerate the authorities that the government has had for decades to combat climate change and reduce pollution."

Brett Wilkins ·

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at a rally

Ocasio-Cortez Says US 'Witnessing a Judicial Coup in Process'

"It is our duty to check the Court's gross overreach of power in violating people's inalienable rights and seizing for itself the powers of Congress and the president."

Brett Wilkins ·

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about gas prices on June 22, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

Critics Say Biden Drilling Bonanza 'Won't Lower Gas Prices' But 'Will Worsen Climate Crisis'

"President Biden's massive public lands giveaway in the face of utter climate catastrophe is just the latest sign that his climate commitments are mere rhetoric," said one campaigner.

Kenny Stancil ·

Voting rights rally

Grave Warnings as Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case That Threatens 'Future of Voting Rights'

"Buckle up," implores one prominent legal scholar. "An extreme decision here could fundamentally alter the balance of power in setting election rules in the states and provide a path for great threats to elections."

Brett Wilkins ·

Common Dreams Logo

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.