Plumes of Black Smoke Rise as 'Staged' Palestinian 'Rage' Begins in Wake of Trump's Jerusalem Move
Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli troops across Judea and Samaria today in the wake of President Trump's decision to acknowledge that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
A thick plume of black smoke rose over the city of Ramallah, the home of the Palestinian Authority, as protesters set tires on fire.
In the Gaza strip, some protesters burned posters of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Israeli and U.S. flags.
In other areas, rioters hurled stones at anti-riot troops, demonstrators taking to the streets from the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem to a number of other cities like Hebron, Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem.
In clashes in the biblical town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born, Israeli troops fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse a crowd.
Palestinians have closed down their schools and shops as they call for three "days of rage" over Trump's decision, protests that could escalate on Friday as Muslims gather for their day of worship.
"We want the uprising to last and continue to let Trump and the occupation regret this decision," said Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas.
Meanwhile, the Gatestone Institute cautions that the protests are mainly manufactured and orchestrated to spread fear around the world.
"Now that the Palestinians have managed, with the help of the media, to burn these images into the minds of millions of Americans, they are planning more staged protests," Mideast scholar Bassam Tawil writes for Gatestone.
Tawil says the way the media portrays Palestinian protests just feeds into the anti-Israel narrative of trying to convince the world that Trump did a bad thing.
"The goal: to terrify the American public and force Trump to rescind his decision regarding the status of Jerusalem. This tactic of intimidation through the media is not new. In fact, it is something that has been happening for decades, largely thanks to the buy-in of the mainstream media in the West," Tawil writes.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it would deploy several battalions to the West Bank ahead of Friday, while other troops have been put on alert to address "possible developments."
