Palestinians call general strike to protest Pence visit to Jerusalem

Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party called for a general strike across “all Palestinian sectors” on Tuesday in response to a United States decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The strike was timed to coincide with the final day of US Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Jerusalem.

A separate strike in Gaza went into effect on Monday across the Strip’s private sector to protest a worsening economic crisis in the enclave.

Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Moheisen, who is responsible for organizing “popular resistance,” declared over the PA’s official radio newscast “a comprehensive strike in all sectors and institutions, except the ministries of health and education, to condemn the latest decision by US President Donald Trump on Jerusalem,” the PA official news outlet Wafa reported.

The strike was called in accordance with a recent decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization to organize “popular and peaceful resistance” to Trump’s decision.

Strikes declared by Fatah usually are observed in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and manifest less in the Gaza Strip.

The trip by Pence is the first by a major figure from the US since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a December 6 address. While Israel has feted Pence for the move, the Palestinians have reacted furiously and are refusing to meet with the vice president, who arrived in the city Sunday night.

Pence repeated the administration stance that Trump’s “historic” declaration “would create an opportunity to move on, in good faith negotiations, between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on issues that can be discussed and President Trump truly believes can be resolved.”

Pence and his wife Karen arrived at Ben-Gurion airport Sunday evening as part of a wider tour of Middle Eastern countries which comes amid simmering Palestinian anger at Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In Jordan, King Abdullah pressed Pence on backing the two-state solution and chided the administration for its recognition of Jerusalem, which broke years of US policy.

Pence said he and Abdullah had “agreed to disagree.”

After Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem, Abbas said he would not meet with administration officials and called off a meeting with Pence that had been scheduled for mid-December.

In a new expression of that snub, Abbas overlapped but didn’t meet with Pence in Jordan from Saturday evening until midday Sunday, when the Palestinian leader flew to Brussels for a meeting with European Union foreign ministers Monday. There, Abbas is expected to urge EU member states to recognize a state of Palestine in the pre-1967 lines, and to step up their involvement in mediation.

In protest of Pence’s arrival in Israel, several Palestinian protesters burned a photo of the vice president Sunday night at a small demonstration in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Pence’s trip had been scheduled to include a visit to Bethlehem, but the Palestinian Authority is boycotting his visit, so the West Bank itinerary was canceled. The trip had originally been scheduled for mid-December, but was delayed by a tax vote in the Senate that Pence needed to be in Washington for.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.