Palestinians Mock Trump, Demonize US

The Palestinians have engaged in a virulent anti-Trump and anti-US campaign. How should the US respond? 

By: United with Israel Staff

President’s Donald Trump’s historic recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has prompted the Palestinians to launch a vicious campaign mocking him and demonizing the US.

A detailed report compiled by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which  monitors Palestinian incitement to terrorism and anti-Semitism, documents how the Palestinians have called Trump an “ignoramus,” a “rich adolescent,” and an “irrelevant clown.” They have burned and trampled his picture across Palestinian cities. Inexplicably, the Palestinians claim no good has ever come from the billions of dollars in aid provided by the US, its top source of donations.

These expressions of mockery, ridicule, and disdain were made by top Palestinian officials, including by Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority and Fatah Movement.

“The rubbish of the American president isn’t worth the urine of one Jerusalem child,” said Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ adviser on Religious and Islamic Affairs and head of the Supreme Council for Shari’ah Justice.

Over the past month, the PA and Fatah in their publications and statements have called Trump  a “scoundrel,” a “crazy man,” “the American Shylock,” “an ignoramus,” “[not] worth a woman’s shoe,” “stupid,” and “the enemy of justice , freedom, and peace … the enemy of the world.”

Abbas’ Fatah Movement compared Trump to the genocidal Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, posting an image of the two on Twitter next to a statement explaining that Fatah does not see any difference between them:

“I don’t see any different [sic], do you? #HandsOffAlQuds,” Fatah tweeted in December.

Fatah also tweeted an anti-Trump poster calling the US president “an irrelevant clown.” The image shows a sign with a photo of Trump and a red stamp reading “Veto!” over his mouth.

An Abbas advisor rejected the US’ aid, stating that the Palestinians “are not bought with your dollars, and we are not bought with your aid. From the outset, you did not give us aid because of our beautiful eyes… [but] out of your interests and calculations. So stop this aid.”

A senior Fatah official called on all Palestinians “to put a picture of Trump with a donkey on his head – let them burn him and hang him. We need to see [a picture of] Trump on every street and step on it.”

The PA also mocked countries that voted with the US at the United Nations when the body passed a resolution calling on the US to retract its recognition of Jerusalem.

“Palau, Malau, Micronesia – states that no one has heard of! … Micro-nesia, micro, small. Someone wrote: ‘I thought that was the name of an antibiotic,'” Abbas’ advisor stated.

Palestinian Reaction: ‘Ugly’ and ‘Anti-Semitic’

The Palestinians’ response to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem has been “ugly, needlessly provocative and anti-Semitic,” US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post in December.

Friedman described the Palestinian reaction as “largely emotional,” saying they “unfortunately overreacted” because Trump made clear that the US was “not taking a position on any final-status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.”

While the Palestinians have rejected any US role in the peace process, Friedman said there will be no process without US involvement.

“There is no path around the United States,” he told the Post. He said Israel has made it clear that it will not engage in any such process under the sponsorship of any other nation. “You cannot clap with one hand,” said Friedman. “Moreover, only the United States has the regional credibility to bring forward a historic peace agreement.”