Palestinian incitement against the US has reached new heights. While the Palestinians have never been fans of the US, the past few weeks have revealed the extent to which they truly loathe Americans. The US, it is worth noting, funds the Palestinians to the tune of nearly $800 million every year -- $368 million every year to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA); and $400 million every year to the Palestinian Authority (PA), with $363 million from USAID and $36 million every year for security.
This is how the Palestinian incitement machine works: PA leaders and officials set the tone, while ordinary Palestinians take to the streets to express their hatred of the US.
Hardly a day passes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip without a photo or effigy of President Donald Trump and US flags being burned before local and foreign journalists and camera crews.
Such scenes have become commonplace since Trump's December announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
![]() A Palestinian woman holds an assault rifle to the head of an effigy of US President Donald Trump in Gaza, December 9, 2017. (Image source: Ruptly video screenshot) |
Until recently, such scenes of rage were reserved for Israeli leaders and the Israeli flag. The Palestinians, however, have now added the US to their list of enemies -- they do not like Trump's announcement on Jerusalem and see him as being "biased" in favor of Israel.
Most recently, US Vice President Mike Pence was placed on the Palestinian list of the condemned. Pence's visit to Israel and his speech before the Knesset turned him, too, into an enemy of the Palestinians.
How dare Pence voice his support for Trump's Jerusalem announcement and deliver a pro-Israel speech before the Israeli parliament? After eight years of being spoiled beyond their dreams by the Obama administration, this is nothing short of anathema to the Palestinian people.
Last weekend, the Palestinians' anti-American campaign reached a peak, when activists in a refugee camp near Bethlehem held a mock trial for Trump and Pence.
Initiated by the "Popular Resistance," a coalition of various Palestinian factions, Trump and Pence were "tried" before a Palestinian "peoples' court" in the Al-Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.