A SECURITY guard has been stabbed in Jerusalem as protests and demonstrations take place across the world following US president Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Israeli police said a man was stabbed near Jerusalem’s central bus station.
Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the guard was seriously wounded yesterday and his attacker arrested.
The Magen David Adom medical service said a 30-year-old man suffered a stab wound in his upper body.
The incident appeared to be the first attack since Trump’s decision, which set off demonstrations in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
In Lebanon, security forces have broken up a protest outside the heavily-guarded US Embassy after demonstrators pelted them with stones.
After a rowdy start, the protest drew several hundred people and became more peaceful, with demonstrators chanting and singing.
The clashes resumed in the afternoon, with security forces chasing protesters, arresting a handful of them and lobbing tear gas canisters.
Lebanon is home to 450,000 Palestinian refugees, nearly 10 per cent of the population.
In Indonesia, about 10,000 people rallied outside a US Embassy to support Palestinians and denounce the decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The protest in Jakarta, organised by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party, was the second since Trump’s decision.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has strongly condemned the move, which he described as a violation of UN resolutions.
Indonesia, as the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has long been a strong supporter of Palestinians and has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
The defence minister of Israel is calling for a boycott of Arab businesses where residents carried out the protests.
Avigdor Lieberman said the Arabs of Wadi Ara in northern Israel are “not part of us” and Jewish Israelis should no longer visit their villages and buy their products.
He spoke to Army Radio after hundreds of Israeli Arabs protested on Saturday along a major road.
Dozens of masked rioters hurled stones at bus and police vehicles.
Three Israeli people were wounded and several vehicles damaged.
The protests were part of a Palestinian “day of rage” following Trump’s announcement that he planned to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
Lieberman has long called for Wadi Ara to be incorporated into a future Palestinian state.
Lieberman, who heads the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, said: “These people do not belong to the state of Israel. They have no connection to this country.
“Moreover, I would call on all citizens of Israel — stop going to their stores, stop buying, stop getting services, simply a boycott on Wadi Ara. They need to feel that they are not welcome here.”
He wants Wadi Ara included in his proposed swap of lands and populations as part of a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The residents, like many of Israel’s Arab minority, sympathise with the Palestinians of the West Bank and often openly identify with them.
But they are also Israeli citizens who largely reject the notion of becoming part of a future Palestinian state.
Ayman Odeh, head of the Arab Joint list in parliament, said Lieberman’s call for a boycott of Arabs was reminiscent of the worst regimes in history.
Gilad Erdan, the minister of public security from the ruling Likud Party, said that Lieberman’s diplomatic plan was not applicable and he rejected the notion of giving up the country’s sovereignty just because it had Arab citizens.
Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes following rocket fire from there and in clashes along the border.
Overall, however, the three days of protests passed relatively peacefully amid fears that they could spark another violent Palestinian uprising.
The status of Jerusalem lies at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Trump’s move was widely perceived as siding with Israel.
The announcement triggered denunciations from around the world that suggested he had needlessly stirred more conflict in an already volatile region.
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