Palestinians Urge Muslims, Christians to Protest US Embassy Relocation

Senior officials in Palestine asked Muslim and Christian worshipers across West Asia to protest against plans by US President-elect Donald Trump to transfer the American embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem).
 
Mohammad Shtayyeh, a senior Palestinian official and Fatah central committee member, called on prayers at mosques as well as for churches throughout West Asia to ring their bells to protest potential Trump's action on Friday and Sunday respectively.
 
"I think and we all think that moving the embassy to al-Quds (Jerusalem) is a dangerous step that will have dangerous consequences for the political track for our people and for our future aspirations and for the Muslim, Arab, Christian countries and people all over the world," Shtayyeh told journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday.
 
"We are not inciting violence. Ringing a church bell... is not a violent act. Calling for a prayer is not a violent act," he further said, adding on behalf of the Palestinian leadership, that doing so would mean an "end to the two-state solution."
 
The Palestinian leadership had been informed by diplomatic contacts that Trump could call for the move in his inauguration speech on 20 January, Shtayyeh said.
 
In early December, US President Barack Obama renewed a presidential waiver ordering the US embassy to remain in Tel Aviv, despite pressure by Congress and Israeli regime not to do so.