Palestinians channel protests through dawn prayers

Before sunrise, thousands of Palestinians streamed toward the mosque in Nablus’s Victory Square, swelling the usual crowds of morning worshippers to launch a new front in their protests against Israel and the United States.

According to Reuters, The scene has been replicated elsewhere in the West Bank, where people have started turning out for early prayers in unusual numbers, leaving the usual protest sites where they risk detention and channelling their anger into a mass expressions of faith.

“This is the most peaceful way to get the message out,” said restaurant owner Saif Abu Baker, as the Nablus crowds spilt out of the mosque into surrounding alleyways and courtyards.

Political slogans including “For the sake of God, we have risen” echoed through Nablus’s Old City after the calls from the muezzin and the murmured recitations of the faithful.

“I would hope that it is a new form of channelling the way the message is being sent out there,” said Abu Baker. “Because we have tried protesting and it did not work because we don’t have enough power. It’s a safer way for everyone.”

Much of the crowd’s message at Friday’s fajr (dawn) prayers – the day when most people turn out – was a rejection of the perceived pro-Israel bias of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan.