Thousands of Palestinians Wednesday affirmed their support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at protests in refugee camps in the Tyre area, a day before he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly.
Nearly 5,000 people gathered in the camps in the southern city to scorn U.S. President Donald Trump for his policies favoring Israel, in a protest called for by the Fatah Movement, the occupied West Bank-based political party headed by Abbas.
Demonstrators raised banners bearing Abbas’ picture, many of which were printed with the text: “We won’t give in to U.S. threats.”
A protester in Rashidieh refugee camp, Fathiya Kheloud, had a message for the U.S. president. “Listen, Trump, U.S. leaders before you have conspired and did not reap Jerusalem and Palestine. We will return, despite your intervention.”
Kheloud also addressed the Trump administration’s recent decision to close the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.
“You can close down whatever Palestinian institutions in the U.S. you want, but your plan will fail and won’t achieve anything from the ‘deal of the century,’” she said, referring to what Trump has previously termed his vision for a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement.
Brig. Gen. Toufic Abdallah, a senior Fatah official in Lebanon, spoke on behalf of the party, reiterating support for Abbas.
“We are here to say that we support the speech of the leader, the voice of righteousness, the voice of Jerusalem, the voice of refugees and mother Palestine,” Abdallah said in the his speech to protesters.
“We gather here today to reiterate to all of our Palestinian people, wherever they may be in Gaza or the West Bank, camps in Lebanon and Jordan the message of the president to the United Nations: Palestine is our country and Jerusalem our capital.”
Abdallah also spoke on behalf of Palestinians in Lebanon, shooting down Trump’s vision for Middle East peace, which is yet to be unveiled by the White House. “We in Lebanon say ‘no’ to Trump’s ‘deal of the century.’ It won’t pass,” he said.
The Fatah representative urged the international community to put pressure on Israel “to stop its violence, its demolition of houses and establishment of [illegal] settlements, as well as assaults on [Palestinians].”
“Do these massacres serve peace? An Independent Palestinian state is the right of Palestinians. If not as a favor, what is taken by force is returned by force,” he warned.
But in the face of U.S. policies affecting Palestinians, protester Abu Abdallah said he was not concerned.
“We don’t fear anyone and we don’t take decisions by Trump into consideration. Trump will go to the gutter of history, but Palestine will remain,” he said. Fatah will hold a solidarity festival in the Mar Elias refugee camp Thursday.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
