An Iranian student group has said it will pay $100,000 to anyone who is able to destroy the newly opened U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
The embassy was opened yesterday, accompanied by protests in the Gaza Strip that saw at least 58 Palestinians killed by Israeli army snipers. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem has drawn international condemnation and dealt a blow to hopes of any Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
Now a hard-line Iranian organization—the Iranian Justice Seekers Student Movement—has distributed posters calling for attacks on the embassy. In English, Arabic and Farsi, the fliers say the group “will support anybody who destroys the illegal American embassy in Jerusalem.”
The group claimed it would pay a $100,000 reward to whoever destroys the facility. The distribution of the posters was first reported by the Farsi-language regional news website University Student News Network.
The decision to open the embassy has been widely criticized. Trump announced the plan when he officially recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in December 2017. Both Israelis and Palestinians consider Jerusalem their first city, so Trump’s decision to recognize the city as the Israeli capital undermined Palestinian hopes it will serve as the capital of their future state.
Most national embassies are located in Tel Aviv to avoid this issue. The U.S. was the first to announce it would relocate its facility, and several other nations have since followed suit.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that the embassy, which he called a "settlement outpost," stood as an obstacle to peace. The president said Palestinian negotiators would not take part in any peace talks mediated by the U.S. “in any way, shape or form.”
American and Israeli officials attending the opening ceremony yesterday stood in stark contrast to the bloodied protesters in Gaza. The American delegation was made up of Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and several lawmakers and religious leaders. Kushner has been criticized for comments suggesting protesters in Gaza “are part of the problem and not part of the solution.” These comments were edited out of the White House's official transcript from the event. READ MORE
