President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. Embassy would be moved to Jerusalem, was cited as reason enough to encourage Palestinian youth to clash with the Israeli army.
On January, 20th, 2018, the statement by the PLO said: “We urge our nation’s sons and our nation’s working partners to increase and expand the popular resistance and turn the lives of settlers into hell. We start this coming Friday, after we pray, with big massive protests at mutual points of military barriers.”
In interviewing students from various universities, most youth did not favor clashing with IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, citing the government using them as tools to further their political agenda, while there were a number of students who wore being in and out of Israeli jails as a badge of honor. Most saw Israel as their enemy and “occupier” and that the only solution was all of Israel is Palestine. One student from Modern College University, where three students were involved in recent stabbing attacks against Israelis, was anxious to share that the only answer is to “stab, shoot or kill Israelis.”