Ahead of tomorrow’s protest in Jerusalem against the re-opening of a US consulate for the PA, Arutz Sheva spoke with The Sovereignty Movement’s Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.
“We’re starting with a vigil tomorrow. It is going to be a crescendo. Every week bigger and bigger," Matar says.
The protest tomorrow at 5 p.m. will include not only 20 Israeli organizations but also many American ones as well.
Matar notes that the Biden administration is opening the consulate despite “wall to wall opposition in Israel” – and the protest will make this clear.
“There is a process here by the American administration basically to divide Jerusalem to give a hold to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, to erase what President Trump has done, to put new facts on the ground, to promote the division of Jerusalem, to promote the creation of a Palestinian state. If G-d forbid, this happens, this is the first domino in what is going to be lead to the division of Jerusalem and to the creation of a Palestinian state,” says Matar.
She adds: “We have to tell the American administration, ‘Friends do not trample on the sovereignty of Israel.’”
Mentioning the Jerusalem Basic Law of 1980 that clearly states that an undivided Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, she comments that the Israeli people, from all sectors, are against the American move.
“How dare you go against the will of the majority of the Jewish people. How dare you go against all the Israeli governments [since 1980].”
Their protest will help the Israeli government explain to the Biden administration that the whole nation is against their decision – “Look the people are in the streets.”
The vigil is not against the Israeli government but in favor of a united Jerusalem, Matar says; in favor of all the governments in the past who supported an undivided Jerusalem as the Jewish capital.
“We are not agreeing to this. Don’t tell us that you are friends and demand that we should commit suicide because the creation of a Palestinian state, the division of Jerusalem, is committing suicide,” she says. “The American people are with us but the American administration has done quite a few mistakes already. We’re not going to be Afghanistan.”
Matar explains that “one of the slogans tomorrow is: ‘This is not Afghanistan, don’t touch our Jerusalem.’”
“We know you made mistakes in the Middle East. We’re not going to let you make mistakes in playing with our survival,” Matar says.
In additional to the Israeli organizations participating, in order to bring their message to Washington, there are American organizations participating, including the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Americans for a Safe Israel, Rabbi Pesach Lerner’s organization and Israel Allies Foundation.