Billboards in Tel Aviv incite reprisal against Palestinians over rejection of Trump deal

Billboards have appeared on highways in Tel Aviv with hateful messages against Palestinians, in apparent reprisal for their refusal to accept US President Donald Trump’s plan for the Middle East, which heavily favors the Israeli regime.

News ID: 449123

Date: 18 February 2020 - 10:51

RNA = The billboards read “Peace is made ONLY with vanquished enemies” and show photoshopped images of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader and former prime minister Ismail Haniyeh blindfolded and kneeling in supplication in a war-zone, with buildings behind them reduced to rubble and helicopters hovering.

Former Knesset member of the Meretz Party Issawi Freig slammed the billboards as “disgusting” and urged the mayor of Tel Aviv to remove them. “This disgust must go down now. [Mayor] Ron Huldai, for your care,” he said in a tweet.

It was not immediately clear who sponsored the billboards or if the campaign aimed to help rightist parties in the upcoming general elections scheduled for March 2.

Huldai, the mayor, said in a statement that the billboards would be taken down, acknowledging that they “incite violence and recall the actions” of Daesh terrorists and the Nazis.

“Even in election season, there are red lines,” he said.

Trump unveiled his plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on January 28. The so-called deal would have, among other contentious things, recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allowed the regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

All Palestinian groups unanimously rejected the plan. So did many countries, including the European Union (EU).

EU states pushing for recognition of State of Palestine

Meanwhile, a group of EU member states led by Luxembourg is planning to put forward an initiative at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers on Monday to approve a joint EU recognition of a Palestinian state.

Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has already discussed the issue with the foreign ministers of Ireland, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Malta, and Slovenia.

Several EU member states already recognize Palestine as a state, but the bloc as a whole does not.

Trump’s plan to be buried: Palestinian PM

In fresh remarks, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denounced Trump’s plan — which would have seen a future Palestinian state fragmented and with “no sovereignty” — and said the proposal would be “buried very soon.”

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, Prime Minister Shtayyeh said the US plan was “no more than a memo of understanding between [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and Trump.”

He also called on other countries to reject the plan, stressing that Palestinians “are open to serious negotiations.”

US plan threatens regional peace: Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has rejected Trump’s plan before, reiterated his opposition on Saturday.

“I would like to state once again that this so-called peace plan is nothing but a dream that threatens the regional peace and tranquility,” President Erdogan said.

He stressed that Ankara would never allow the “legitimization of invasion, annexation, and destruction.”

Source: Press TV

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