Hundreds of Palestinian youths held a massive protest against U.S. Secretary Of State, Hilary Clinton, who visited the central West Bank city of Ramallah and held a meeting with Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestine News Network (PNN) reported.The protesters carried pictures of children slaughtered by Israeli missiles in Gaza, while a number of protesters torched American flags and chanted against this meeting due to the clear stances of the United States in supporting Israel despite its crimes against the Palestinian people.
The protest was held close to the Presidential Headquarters in Ramallah; it was called for by social media activists in the West Bank.
One of the protesters told the PNN that this protest was held “due to the American blind support to Israel despite its crimes against the civilians, the children and the infants, in Gaza”, and added that, “the United States is the country that is preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
It is worth noting that the Palestinian security forces prevented the protesters from approaching the presidential headquarters, and kept them at least 400 meters away.
Following the Abbas-Clinton meeting, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Dr. Saeb Erekat, stated that Abbas focused on the importance of stopping the escalation.
On her part, Clinton told Abbas that the U.S. Administration is “conducting utmost efforts to achieve a ceasefire”.
Abbas told Clinton that all factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, are interested in a mutual truce that should also include stopping the Israeli assassinations of political and military leaders in Gaza.
Dr. Erekat said that Egypt is, and has always been, an important mediator, and that the country is conducting utmost efforts to stop the violence.
He also said that Abbas informed Clinton that Israel killed since last week more than 139 Palestinians, and injured more than 1,100, and that entire families were killed by Israeli missiles, and were buried under the rubble of their homes.
Abbas told Clinton that Gaza is facing a very serious humanitarian crisis, a massacre, adding that this should end.
It is worth mentioning that Abbas and Clinton also held talks on the Palestinian membership application at the United Nations, while Clinton reiterated the U.S. stance rejecting this move.
Clinton asked Abbas to postpone the application, and even to void it completely, while Abbas said that “the Palestinians do not seek tension or confrontation with the U.S. or any other country, but they are practicing their internationally guaranteed right in establishing a state in the 1967 territory with East Jerusalem as its capital”. The UN will be discussing the Palestinian bud on the 29th of this month.
