The top ranking Democratic lawmaker hailed the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, as the Israeli military gunned down non-violent Palestinian marchers protesting the theft of their land.
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) praised the ribbon-cutting on Monday. He said in a statement: “Every nation should have the right to choose its capital.”
“I sponsored legislation to do this two decades ago, and I applaud President Trump for doing it,” Schumer said.
Palestinians, however, have also claimed Jerusalem as their capital. The international community currently recognizes East Jerusalem as the seat of government for a future Palestinian state—a status quo keeping the vast majority of embassies to Israel in Tel-Aviv.
In recent months, Schumer castigated Palestinians for not practicing Judaism, declaring it to be the reason for their ongoing hostilities with Israelis.
“Of course, we say it’s our land, the Torah says it, but they don’t believe in the Torah,” Schumer said. “So that’s the reason there is not peace.”
In response to the US embassy opening ceremony, Palestinian organizers in the West Bank called for protests. There were “several thousand” demonstrators who responded by rallying on Monday in Ramallah, according to the Associated Press.
The opening of the embassy coincided with the day Israel marks the anniversary of its creation. Palestinians commemorate the event the day after by calling it the “Nakba”–catastrophe, in Arabic. The term refers to the 1948 ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs.
Citizens of Gaza protested the Nakba on Monday by attempting to peacefully cross the fence separating the besieged enclave from Israeli-held territory.
The demonstration, aimed at drawing attention to the Palestinian right of return, was the second such action in almost as many months. Another march is planned for Tuesday, the actual day of official Nakba commemorations.
Just like at the last protest, the Israeli military responded to demonstrations by firing round after round aimed at either killing or severely wounding Palestinians.
According to health officials in Gaza, Israeli security forces killed 52 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,200. At the last rally, in March, fifteen Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 were wounded.
The United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights responded to Monday’s killings by roundly condemning the Israeli government. A committee for the body said it was “alarmed by the disproportionate use of force.”
The panel also called for the Israeli government to “fully respect the norms of humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to lift the blockade of the Gaza strip.”
It additionally noted it was “highly concerned” that Monday’s killings took place amid “a rise of racist hate speech and incitement to racist violence against Palestinians.”
