Protest held in Lebanon against Bahrain conference on Palestine

People have taken to the streets in the Lebanese capital of Beirut to protest against a United States-sponsored conference in Bahrain where Washington aims to unveil parts of what it calls a “deal” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The protesters rallied on Tuesday, condemning US President Donald Trump’s so-called deal and calling it a plot against the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre as well as businesses there also closed as the Palestinian refugees staged a strike and sit-ins in condemnation of the conference in Bahrain and the wider plan on Tuesday.

Rallies are also set to be held in the Palestinian refugee camps of the city in protest against the plan, which Trump himself calls “the deal of the century.”

The US will lead the two-day conference in Manama, starting Tuesday, to purportedly encourage investment in the occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip.

All Palestinian factions have boycotted the event, slamming Washington for what they view as an attempt to offer financial rewards for Palestinians to accept the Israeli occupation.

The details of the so-called deal have been kept under wraps, with only scraps of information having been leaked to the media. That little information, however, has been enough for the Palestinian to reject the “deal” altogether.

Despite the Palestinian rebuttal, several Arab regimes have endorsed the plan and are scheduled to participate in the conference in Bahrain.

Still, in an interview broadcast on Tuesday, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, who is widely believed to be the architect of the “deal,” said it is “not going to be along the lines of” a 2002 Arab initiative offered to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.