[News] 'Resistance is not terrorism': Palestinians burn effigies of Trump in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  'Resistance is not terrorism': Palestinians burn effigies of Trump in Gaza

May 23, 2017 - http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777250


GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continued to express 
outrage over US President Donald Trump calling out the Hamas movement -- 
Gaza’s de facto leading party -- in a list of terrorist organizations 
during a speech in Riyadh on Saturday before 50 leaders of Arab and 
Muslim-majority countries. <http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777189>

Palestinians in Gaza from across the political spectrum united in 
denouncing the remarks, which have been interpreted as a blanket 
condemnation of all forms of Palestinian resistance.

"No description of the suffering and depravity can begin to capture its 
full measure. The true toll of ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and so 
many others, must be counted not only in the number of dead. It must 
also be counted in generations of vanished dreams," Trump said, in his 
first speech delivered abroad since taking office.

Shortly after the speech was broadcast, Hamas reacted 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777203>by accusing Trump of 
"complete bias" toward the policies of the Israeli occupation by 
designating the movement as a terrorist organization.

The designation “denies the Palestinian people's legitimate right to 
resistance to liberate their land and holy places,” Hamas, which 
identifies as a Islamist national resistance movement, said.

Hamas denounced Trump’s message at the summit in Saudi Arabia -- which 
focused heavily on what he called “the crisis of Islamist extremism” -- 
for attempting to divide the Muslim world, as Trump meanwhile “ignores 
the Zionist crimes of killing children and women and demolishing the 
roofs over their heads.”

Israeli officials have routinely claimed that Palestinian armed 
resistance is part of an international rise in Islamist extremism, 
while many Palestinians have instead pointed chiefly to the frustration 
and despair brought on by Israel's decades-long military occupation of 
the Palestinian territory and the absence of a political horizon.

The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees organized a rally in Rafah 
city in the southern besieged coastal enclave Monday evening protesting 
Trump’s remarks.

Dozens of supporters crowded at Shuhada Square in the center of the city 
and torched US flags, as well as photos and an effigy of Donald Trump.

"Palestinian resistance is a source of pride for the nation fighting its 
enemy and occupier and trying to liberate its country," leader of the 
Popular Resistance Committees Abu Fares al-Shamali said.
Trump's remarks, al-Shamali added, were blindly throwing US support 
behind the interests of Israeli occupation, "which is the true source of 
terrorism and violence in the region and in the world," he said.




On Tuesday, anti-Trump protests raged on in the small Palestinian 
territory.

Hundreds of supporters of the leftist and secular Popular Front for the 
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) rallied in Gaza City to protest Trump’s 
remarks made in Riyadh, demonstrating that the comments were being 
interpreted as offensive to Palestinian resistance movements at large, 
irrespective of political or religious affiliation.

Demonstrators waving Palestinian flags, PFLP flags, as well as Hezbollah 
and Iranian flags rallied from Palestine Square to the prisoners' 
solidarity sit-in tent at Saraya Square, chanting against US policies in 
the region.

Two masked PFLP gunmen aimed their guns at an effigy of Trump tied up in 
ropes in Saraya Square, behind a banner that simply stated: “Resistance 
is not terrorism.”

Member of the PFLP's politburo Kayid al-Ghoul told Ma'an that the rally 
reflected the group's support for the demands of hunger-striking 
Palestinian prisoners and firm solidarity with their plight, as well as 
opposition to Trump’s policies, which he said were “predictably in 
support of Israel’s conditions for the so-called peace process.”

Al-Ghoul said that, "today, we are sending a message that the 
Palestinian people refuse to give up any of our rights, and refuse to go 
back to US-sponsored negotiations."







The Islamic Jihad movement also organized a rally in central Gaza City 
condemning "Trump's statements against resistance factions," with the 
group stressing that they completely rejected the US president's 
characterization of Hamas as a terrorist organization, raising a banner 
that said: “Our dignity is our most valuable possession. Trump, 
resistance is not terrorism -- we will triumph and you will leave.”

Member of the Islamic Jihad's politburo Muhammad al-Hindi said that 
“Palestinian resistance factions are holding on to Palestinian rights 
stronger than ever, despite all the conspiracies being planned against 
the Palestinian cause.”Al-Hindi said that “Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia 
and his description of the resistance as terrorism, in front of all of 
the Arab and Islamic world leaders, is a reflection of the ongoing 
deterioration in the region," referring to a growing alliance between 
heads of state in the region, the United States, and Israel at the 
expense of the Palestinian cause.

Al-Hindi denounced the leaders -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas 
among them -- for their silence to Trump's message, particularly as the 
US president famously hinged his presidential campaign on inflammatory, 
anti-Muslim rhetoric.




Ahead of Trump's visit to Riyadh -- which was marked by the US signing a 
$110 billion weapons deal with the Saudi regime -- Middle East and North 
Africa Director at Amnesty International Philip Luther said that the 
"potential for President Trump to build toxic alliances with leaders who 
share his disdain for human rights during his first foray into foreign 
diplomacy is deeply worrying.

"Touching on Trump's ambitions to secure “the ultimate deal” for Middle 
East peace, Amnesty International's statement also deplored successive 
Israeli governments for large-scale violations throughout the 
50-year-long occupation of the Palestinian territory, which "have 
inflicted mass suffering on Palestinians.

"The international rights group highlighted how the state of Israel has 
been "emboldened" by the new Trump administration to accelerate the 
expansion of illegal settlements in violation of international law as 
well as step up Palestinian home demolitions.

Trump’s visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory was also 
met with a widely observed general strik 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777210>e and protests 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777244> in the occupied West 
Bank, with a combined message of support fora mass hunger strike under 
way in Israeli prisons <http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777234>, 
and also to voice opposition to the resumption of peace talks between 
the Palestinian Authority and Israel under US sponsorship.

Protests Monday erupted intoviolent clashes 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777224>, as a “Day of Rage” 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777183> has also been called 
for on Tuesday.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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