Protests against Trump Plan in the Galilee, Arab Triangle and Tel Aviv

Thousands of Jews and Arabs protested in central Tel Aviv, last night (Saturday, February 1), against US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century.” The demonstrators gathered in Dizengoff Square and marched from there to Ibn Gvirol Avenue. Following the procession, a rally was held where speakers included Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman, Darwish Rabi (Hadash) Mayor of Jaljulya, Hadash union activist Maysam Jaljuli, well know author Yehoshua Sobol and Peace Now CEO Shaked Morag. The protest was organized by Hadash, the Communist Party of Israel, Peace Now, the Geneva Initiative, Combatants for Peace, the Parents Circle Families Forum, Standing Together, A Land for All and other anti-occupation movements and grassroots organizations.

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv march against US President Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century," last night, Saturday, February 1, in Central Tel Aviv. Banners condemn the "Annexation Deal" and declare "No to Apartheid." Second from right, Communist Party of Israel Secretary General, Adel Amer; third from right Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List).

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv march against US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” last night, Saturday, February 1, in Central Tel Aviv. Banners condemn the “Annexation Deal” and declare “No to Apartheid.” Second from right, Communist Party of Israel Secretary General, Adel Amer; third from right Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List). (Photo: Zu Haderech Weekly)

Earlier Saturday, a rally organized by the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee was held in Baqa al-Gharbiya in the Triangle region of Israel to protest “against the conspiracy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump,” the leader of the Monitoring Committee and former Hadash MK, Muhammad Barakeh, told those gathered.

Several other protests were held Friday, January 31, in the Galilee and Triangle region against the imperialist “Deal of the Century” which, among other outrages, proposes including Arab communities numbering a total of some 350,000 Israeli citizens in the northern Triangle within a future Palestinian state, by redrawing the border between Israel and the occupied West Bank. Demonstrators in Umm al-Fahm, one of the Triangle communities southeast of Haifa specifically mentioned in the plan, chanted slogans against Trump’s deal and held aloft Palestinian flags. Demonstrations were also held in Tira, Jededia-Makr, Majd al-Krum, Kafr Yassif and near by to Deir al-Asad, where protesters blocked a highway.

“The plan sets the foundation for an immediate, unilateral annexation of the occupied territories while erasing all international consensuses concerning the rights of the Palestinian people and a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders,” wrote the Facebook account entry of the Joint List, the third largest bloc in the Knesset .

“It also sets the ground for the political transfer of many thousands of Arab citizens living in the Triangle by annulling their citizenship. Trump’s and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s plan will only deepen apartheid and is an blatant attempt to permanently perpetuate the occupation,” the entry continued. “In any deal, there are two sides, not just one. In apartheid, there is room for only one people. In democracy, there should be a place for all,” the entry said.

“The text of the US deal entails revoking the Israeli citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs living in the Triangle region in northern Israel,” MK Odeh, warned and called on every Arab or Jewish Israeli citizen to oppose “this dangerous deal.”

Among the 350,000 Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel who reside in the Triangle is MK Youssef Jabareen (Hadash – Joint List), who lives with his family in in the city of Umm al-Fahm. Jabareen said: “Umm al-Fahm is my hometown. Wadi Ara is the landscape of my life. Hundreds of thousands of Arab citizens live in the Triangle and this is their homeland. Trump and Netanyahu’s annexation plan includes a section that lays the groundwork for transfer and the revocation of their citizenship.”

“Netanyahu is dangerous and will do everything to keep his throne. The far-right government is out of control, and all of us, every Arab citizen, is faced with an existential threat in our own homeland. Every citizen, Arab or Jewish, to whom the values of democracy and equality are important, must stand with us and fight this dangerous plan,” Jabareen said.

Related: Posts on the “Deal of the Century”