Protesters outside US Embassy in Lebanon decry Trump plan
Hundreds take part in demonstration, with some chanting ‘Death to America! Death to Israel! We will die and Palestine survive’
BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians held a protest Sunday near the US Embassy in Lebanon against a White House plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Protesters waving Palestinian flags gathered on a road leading to the embassy northeast of Beirut amid tight security by Lebanese troops and riot policemen.
“Death to America! Death to Israel! We will die and Palestine survive,” some of the demonstrators chanted.
The US plan would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep nearly all of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Protesters rail against '#dealofthecentury' outside US embassy #Lebanon #Aaoukar pic.twitter.com/PypNO2tOdq
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) February 2, 2020
Around noon the protesters removed the barbed wire and reached a metal fence set up by security forces. Police used what appeared to be pepper spray to hold back some of the demonstrators, with at least three protesters being carried away.
On Saturday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cut security ties with both Israel and the US in a speech at an Arab League meeting in response to the US plan. Arab foreign ministers there joined in blasting the plan and calling it a setback to Middle East peace efforts.
Lebanon is home to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. There have been protests in the country’s 12 refugee camps since US President Donald Trump unveiled the proposal in Washington.
