Violence Erupts After US Embassy Opens in Jerusalem
The US embassy’s recent opening in Jerusalem has already been met with violent conflict.
This decision, made by the Trump administration, has been met by praise from Israelis and outrage by Palestinians, who have been in conflict over the area for decades. According to the BBC, at least 58 Palestinians activists have been killed since the May 15 opening.
The bloodiest day of this conflict occurred the day the embassy was officially moved, with Israeli forces killing dozens of Palestinians at the Gaza border.
“They are just killing innocents with no backlash,” senior Braeden Heald said. “I have no stake in this fight, but it’s wild to me how little attention this is getting just because we are allies with Israel.”
Not all the Palestinians are innocent though. According to the New York Times, the Palestinians were instructed over loudspeakers to charge the fence bordering Israel in an attempt to take it down and, this can only be assumed, incite more violence. The problem lies in the fact that Israel is meeting these protesters with their full military might and instructions to shoot to kill.
This shoot to kill instruction is what faces so much backlash by the world’s media. It allows Israeli snipers to kill whoever they suspect may be trying to engage in violence. The Palestinian violence, however, is little more than throwing rocks and berating Israeli troops, as they have no standing military to speak of.
That same Monday, the world saw the extent of Israeli aggression. During the charge, Israeli snipers shot a Palestinian doctor in the leg while he was nursing wounded. This doctor was not partaking in the charge, and was in fact a Canadian citizen who went to the region to help the wounded, according to the Canadian CBC.
The doctor, known as Tarek Loubani, told the CBC he “was wearing full hospital greens,” a sign that he is only tending to the wounded. The Israeli snipers did not care, and moments after shooting Loubani, they shot a member of his team, Musa, in the chest and killed him.
So far no nations have condemned the actions of Israel, a common theme for this conflict. The embassy opened as planned, with Ivanka Trump herself cutting the red tape and making it official.
Israel and Palestine have been in conflict for decades, stemming from Israel’s formation of a western backed country on land the Palestinians declare as their own, due to holy reasons. This unconventional war has done little to help the Palestinians gain any backing in its quest to form its own sovereign state. There is no timeline as to when it may end.
Kyle Caddo is a senior from Chester, NJ. Originally from Long Island, Kyle plays for the hockey team.