Palestinians protest against Trump in Hebron

No reports of injuries in clashes with Israeli troops on anniversary of 1994 Tomb of the Patriarchs massacre

Palestinian demonstrators stand on a poster of US President Donald Trump as they protest against his support of Israel and demand for the Israeli army to re-open Shuhada Street near a Jewish settler enclave in the heart of the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, which it has largely closed off to Palestinians, on February 24, 2017. (AFP/Hazem Bader)
Palestinian demonstrators stand on a poster of US President Donald Trump as they protest against his support of Israel and demand for the Israeli army to re-open Shuhada Street near a Jewish settler enclave in the heart of the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, which it has largely closed off to Palestinians, on February 24, 2017. (AFP/Hazem Bader)

Hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers Friday in the powder keg West Bank city of Hebron on the anniversary of a 1994 massacre carried out by a far-right Jewish settler.

Protesters threw shoes at a banner depicting US President Donald Trump in protest of his Mideast policies.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist, said “we disrespect this president who doesn’t see us as equal human beings with everyone.”

Trump is unpopular among Palestinians because the new president has broken from his predecessor and adopted friendlier positions to the Israeli government, including a vague stance on Palestinian statehood and a more lenient approach to settlements.

Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding for the Israeli army to re-open Shuhada Street near a Jewish settler enclave in the heart of the flash point West Bank city of Hebron, which it has largely closed off to Palestinians on February 24, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / HAZEM BADER)
Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest in the West Bank city of Hebron, on February 24, 2017. (AFP/Hazem Bader)

Palestinians have stepped up calls for the Israeli army to re-open a street near the Jewish settler enclave in the heart of the city that has been largely closed off to Palestinians for the past 23 years since the massacre.

Friday’s protest in biblical Hebron was part of several planned to mark the 1994 killing of Palestinian worshipers in the city by a Jewish extremist. On February 25, 1994, settler Baruch Goldstein mowed down 29 Palestinians inside Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs, holy to Muslims and Jews alike, before being lynched.

The site is known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Soldiers fired tear gas and sound grenades to disperse the crowd as cannons doused them with stinking water, an AFP correspondent said. There was no immediate report of injuries.

A general view shows old shoes being thrown by Palestinian demonstrator at a poster of US President Donald Trump as they protest against his support of Israel and demand for the Israeli army to re-open Shuhada Street near a Jewish settler enclave in the heart of the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, which it has largely closed off to Palestinians on February 24, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / HAZEM BADER)
A general view shows old shoes being thrown by Palestinian demonstrators at a poster of US President Donald Trump as they protest against his support of Israel, in the West Bank city of Hebron, on February 24, 2017. (AFP/Hazem Bader)

Jewish settlers, of whom 500 live in the center of the city of around 200,000 Palestinians, hurled stones at the protesters. The army said it wasn’t familiar with any clashes between settlers and Palestinians.

Hebron has been at the center of a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence since October 2015. Thirty-six Israelis, two US nationals, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks. Over 250 Palestinians have been killed, most of them in the course of carrying out attacks, Israel says, and many of the others in clashes with troops in the West Bank and at the Gaza border.

[mappress mapid=”6101″]

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.

Most Popular
read more: