Palestinian Authority activists held a mock trial for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday in the PA-controlled city of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, AFP reported.
According to a report Monday night by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the PA activists, led by representatives of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, held the mock trial in absentia for the two American leaders in the Aida quarter of Bethlehem.
The public event included the reading of a faux verdict, followed by the execution by hanging of Trump and Pence in effigy.
Participants in the mock trial and execution were encouraged to express their hatred for the two American leaders, and footage of the event shows at least one many beating the Trump effigy with his shoe.
After the cardboard cutouts of Trump and Pence were hanged, the two leaders were burned in effigy.
Demonstrators held up a sign with the American flag and pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, President Trump, and Vice President Pence. The leaders’ faces were crossed out, and the words “Zionism = Nazism = facsim”, “USA = ISIS = Terror” written across the US flag.
"The message is that the Palestinian people will pay with its blood for the right of return and the right to establish an independent state of Palestine," said Popular Resistance Committees representative Mazen Al-Azza, MEMRI reported.
The PA’s Fatah party hailed the mock execution on its official social media accounts.
On December 29th, PA activists – led by a former senior PA security official – held an unauthorized demonstration in Bethlehem’s Aida neighborhood against President Trump and “American terrorism”.