Palestinians Rally Against Kushner's ‘Economic Plan’

Date: 24 June 2019 - 21:40

News ID: ۶۷۳۵۳

GAZA/RAMALLAH (Dispatches) – Palestinians burned portraits of U.S. President Donald Trump as they protested in both the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday against U.S.-led plans for a conference on their economy in Bahrain.
Many Palestinian business groups have said they will boycott the June 25-26 event, billed as part of Washington’s long-awaited Zionist-Palestinian peace plan and spearheaded by Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
"Down with Bahrain, down with Trump, down with the Manama conference,” chanted crowds in Gaza. Some burned large paintings of Trump marked with the words: "Deal of the devil”.
Leaders in both territories have accused Washington of pro-Zionist bias and railed against the conference’s focus on economy, rather than their aspirations for an independent state.
Kushner told Reuters on Saturday the plan would create a million jobs, halve Palestinian poverty and double the Palestinians’ GDP.
In the West Bank, hundreds marched through Ramallah’s main squares. Protesters there burned posters of both Trump and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The rallies marked a moment of political unity against the Bahrain conference, despite a 12-year political feud between Abbas’s Fatah party and Hamas.
"The Manama conference is a comedy show, a wedding without the bride (the Palestinians) ... it will not succeed,” said a protester who gave her name as Siham in Gaza City.
The Bahrain conference will be attended by Persian Gulf Arab states as well as Jordan and Egypt. The Zionist regime is expected to send a business delegation but no regime officials.
Mahmoud Barhoush, 25, said he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at what he called Arab states’ "treasonous” participation.
"Enough of your running into the arms of Trump and (Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” he said at the Ramallah protest.
Other demonstrators criticized the lone Palestinian businessman named as an expected attendee in Bahrain, Ashraf Jabari.
"Whoever attends is not a Palestinian and is not welcomed in Palestine. There should be measures taken against them,” said Maisoon Alqadoomi, 32, a Fatah activist from Ramallah.
Palestinian leaders on Monday renewed their calls for a boycott of the conference.

Protesters chant slogans and gesture as they march with Palestinian flags during a demonstration against the U.S.-led conference in Bahrain.