RAMALLAH, Tuesday, May 14, 2019 (WAFA) – Exactly one year ago today, the United States, in a move contradicting with international consensus and law, moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to protest this unprecedented move, and by the end of the day, almost 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli army gunfire and hundreds others injured in one of the bloodiest days in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Palestinians had planned marches and rallies to coincide with the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) anniversary, May 15, the day the Palestinians mark every year remembering the days when they were forced out of their homes and land in Palestine in 1948 and became refugees. Their land was taken over by foreign forces and turned into current day Israel.

But the US decision to move its embassy on the day prior to the Nakba anniversary - intended primarily to add salt to the wound of the Palestinians – forced the Palestinians to move the protests one day to coincide with this appalling American decision.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians protested at the Gaza border with Israel as part of their March of Return activities started on March 30 and in the various cities of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Israeli army crackdown on these protests was as ruthless as the US decision and by the end of the day 60 Palestinians, including children and medics, were killed and more than 1000 injured, many of them critical.

While Israel was killing Palestinians in Gaza and blood was being spelled, American officials namely Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, and her husband, Jarod Kushner, two ardent supporters of Israel, were taking part in festive celebration of the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, totally oblivious to what was going on only 90 kilometers away from where they were.

M.K.