While celebrations will be held throughout Israel on May 14 to mark the official relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem, Palestinians in the West Bank will, by contrast, stage widespread protests in another so-called, “Day of Rage,” the designation that has become the pro-forma epithet for official and quasi-official protests of Israeli actions or nationalistic exercises. The Palestinian leadership repeatedly has called for popular unrest since reacting with fury to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Thereafter, PA President Mahmoud Abbas imposed a boycott on American officials and has publicly stated on numerous occasions that he will not countenance renewing peace negotiations with Israel under U.S. mediation. Previous Palestinian demonstrations against President Trump’s decision that were held over the past six weeks were mass marches along the Gaza-Israel border fence peppered with attempts at forcible infiltration into Israeli territory and the planting of explosives along the fence. Although more than 40 Palestinians died during those exercises, the events were, for the most part, contained by Israeli security forces. But a far greater level of concern exists for the final event, a mass march on the border fence set for May 15. That “Day of Rage,” merging with “Naqba Day” (“catastrophe”) laments the advent of the Jewish state on what Palestinians see as their land and the loss Jerusalem by Jordan to Israel in the 1967 war. With the coming together of both commemorations, a significant test of the Israeli defense echelon seems inevitable as seeks rife as perhaps thousands move as one to breach the border fence while Israeli security personnel face the seemingly impossible task of repelling a mass infiltration attempt without using lethal force. In the past, even without mass provocations such as the proposed infiltration, Naqba Day protests have descended into deadly violence.
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