US scraps West Bank conference over Palestinian protests
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has been forced to postpone a conference it organized in the West Bank city of Ramallah after Palestinian officials and factions called for a boycott and threatened to organize mass protests.
The Palestinians cut all ties with the U.S. after it recognized disputed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017, and view the Trump administration as unfairly biased following a series of actions seen as hostile to their aspirations for an independent state.
The embassy had organized a conference this week to bring together alumni of U.S. educational and cultural programs, including dozens of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who received permission from Israel to attend.
The Palestinian leadership viewed the conference as an attempt to circumvent its boycott of the U.S. administration.
