2 june 2017
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Every year, Israel's far-right nationalist religious camp celebrate Israel’s 1967 conquest of East Jerusalem by parading through Palestinian neighborhoods harassing residents and chanting racist slogans, a display of chauvinism enabled by the violence of Israeli occupation forces.
This video captures what happened when "Jerusalem Day" was marked on 24 May 2017. |
31 may 2017
The battle for control over East Jerusalem is taking a serious turn, as Israeli plans aim to completely change its demographic character and culture, director of the Arab Studies Society’s Mapping Department Khalil Tafakji said on Tuesday.
Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio, Tafakji said that Israel is forcing Palestinian schools to switch to the Israeli curriculum, wants to displace its Palestinians residents and plans to implement several projects in an effort to turn the city into one with a Jewish population.
He was referring to an Israeli plan to financially reward only East Jerusalem schools that teach the Israeli textbooks instead of the current Palestinian ones, as well as reports that Israel wants to secede two densely populated East Jerusalem neighborhoods – Shufat refugee camp and Kufr Aqab – both located behind the apartheid wall but part of the Jerusalem municipal borders, in order to change the demographic character of the occupied city.
Israel also plans to build a cable car that goes over the old city of Jerusalem and is expected to change its historic and cultural character.
Tafakji said, according to WAFA, that US President Donald Trump did not address the issues of East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements during his recent visit, effectively giving Israel the green light to proceed with Judaization of Jerusalem in an absolute disregard to all international resolutions, particularly UNESCO’s resolutions on Jerusalem.
Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio, Tafakji said that Israel is forcing Palestinian schools to switch to the Israeli curriculum, wants to displace its Palestinians residents and plans to implement several projects in an effort to turn the city into one with a Jewish population.
He was referring to an Israeli plan to financially reward only East Jerusalem schools that teach the Israeli textbooks instead of the current Palestinian ones, as well as reports that Israel wants to secede two densely populated East Jerusalem neighborhoods – Shufat refugee camp and Kufr Aqab – both located behind the apartheid wall but part of the Jerusalem municipal borders, in order to change the demographic character of the occupied city.
Israel also plans to build a cable car that goes over the old city of Jerusalem and is expected to change its historic and cultural character.
Tafakji said, according to WAFA, that US President Donald Trump did not address the issues of East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements during his recent visit, effectively giving Israel the green light to proceed with Judaization of Jerusalem in an absolute disregard to all international resolutions, particularly UNESCO’s resolutions on Jerusalem.
29 may 2017
The Israeli Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee approved, on Sunday, the building of a new colonial settlement in the occupied West Bank for the evacuees from the Amona settlement.
Amona was an unauthorized Jewish-only settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Owners of the land on which the settlement was built won a battle in the Israeli courts which led the occupation government to evacuate it three months ago.
Israeli TV Channel 7 said, according to Days of Palestine, that the coordinator for Israeli activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, had already green-lighted the launch of the new settlement.
Additionally, Channel 7 reported that the new settlement was located on state land because it was not privately owned. However, Quds Press said, the appropriated land is part of the Palestinian villages northeast of Ramallah.
There are some 196 government-recognized Israeli settlements scattered across the Palestinian territory, all considered illegal under international law.
While the Israeli government has carried out demolitions of Israeli outposts in the past, most notably the demolition of Amona, earlier this year, it has, at the same time, fast-tracked the expansion of official Israeli settlements throughout the Palestinian territory.
As a part of its demographic war in Jerusalem, Israel has decided to force more than 140,000 Palestinians out of the city’s boundaries.
The Shu’fat Refugee Camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, and the town of Kafr Aqab, in the north of the city, will no longer be considered to fall within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, Israeli Jewish Channel 10 revealed on Sunday, according to Gulf News.
Channel 10 reffered the news, which confirms long-held Palestinian suspicions of a systematic Israeli plan to ensure a Jewish majority in the city, to security sources.
The move has been finalized by the Israeli national security council, and will be implemented to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Jewish occupation of the holy city.
According to Fakhri abu-Diyab, who heads the local committee in defense of occupied Jerusalem, taking Shuafat camp and Kafr Aqab out of the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem will mean that the Palestinians’ blue Jerusalem identity cards will be replaced with green West Bank cards.
He said that Israel plans to set up a local council outside Jerusalem boundaries, to run the two areas, while reserving sole security control there.
A total of 140,000 Palestinians live in the two areas — 75,000 at Shu’fat and 65,000 in Kafr Aqab.
Muneer Zughair, leader of the Jerusalem neighbourhoods’ committee, said that residents of Shu’fat Refugee Camp and Kafr Aqab were already suffering from a lack of municipal services and facilities, and from frequent water shortages.
Residents of Kafr Aqab has sued the occupation municipality several times for failing to provide municipal services, despite paying taxes to the Israeli government.
Israel occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in the early 1980s. Israel wants a united Jerusalem as its eternal capital, and has been forcibly displacing Palestinians to take over the city entirely.
Amona was an unauthorized Jewish-only settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Owners of the land on which the settlement was built won a battle in the Israeli courts which led the occupation government to evacuate it three months ago.
Israeli TV Channel 7 said, according to Days of Palestine, that the coordinator for Israeli activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, had already green-lighted the launch of the new settlement.
Additionally, Channel 7 reported that the new settlement was located on state land because it was not privately owned. However, Quds Press said, the appropriated land is part of the Palestinian villages northeast of Ramallah.
There are some 196 government-recognized Israeli settlements scattered across the Palestinian territory, all considered illegal under international law.
While the Israeli government has carried out demolitions of Israeli outposts in the past, most notably the demolition of Amona, earlier this year, it has, at the same time, fast-tracked the expansion of official Israeli settlements throughout the Palestinian territory.
As a part of its demographic war in Jerusalem, Israel has decided to force more than 140,000 Palestinians out of the city’s boundaries.
The Shu’fat Refugee Camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, and the town of Kafr Aqab, in the north of the city, will no longer be considered to fall within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, Israeli Jewish Channel 10 revealed on Sunday, according to Gulf News.
Channel 10 reffered the news, which confirms long-held Palestinian suspicions of a systematic Israeli plan to ensure a Jewish majority in the city, to security sources.
The move has been finalized by the Israeli national security council, and will be implemented to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Jewish occupation of the holy city.
According to Fakhri abu-Diyab, who heads the local committee in defense of occupied Jerusalem, taking Shuafat camp and Kafr Aqab out of the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem will mean that the Palestinians’ blue Jerusalem identity cards will be replaced with green West Bank cards.
He said that Israel plans to set up a local council outside Jerusalem boundaries, to run the two areas, while reserving sole security control there.
A total of 140,000 Palestinians live in the two areas — 75,000 at Shu’fat and 65,000 in Kafr Aqab.
Muneer Zughair, leader of the Jerusalem neighbourhoods’ committee, said that residents of Shu’fat Refugee Camp and Kafr Aqab were already suffering from a lack of municipal services and facilities, and from frequent water shortages.
Residents of Kafr Aqab has sued the occupation municipality several times for failing to provide municipal services, despite paying taxes to the Israeli government.
Israel occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in the early 1980s. Israel wants a united Jerusalem as its eternal capital, and has been forcibly displacing Palestinians to take over the city entirely.
28 may 2017
The Israeli government held its weekly session on Sunday near al-Buraq Wall square in Occupied Jerusalem to mark the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the city and approved a new Judaization scheme with a budget of 50 million shekels, according to the website of the Hebrew TV Channel Seven.
Maariv newspaper reported that the Israeli government approved a plan of a 50-million-shekel budget for the development of the Old City in Jerusalem and the construction of underground elevators and passages that reach the Jewish Quarter and al-Buraq Wall.
The scheme requires large-scale excavations under al-Buraq square, which threatens the Arab and Islamic archeological sites in the area.
The Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter, "The government's weekly meeting was held today in the tunnels under the Western Wall (al-Buraq Wall) and we have made several decisions that will strengthen the steadfastness of Jerusalem, our capital."
The scheme approved by the government also includes the construction of an air-train linking the Jerusalem train station to al-Buraq Wall in order to facilitate the movement of 130,000 Israelis to al-Buraq Square. The distance of the 40-car train will be 1,400 meters and it will run at a speed of 21 kilometers per hour.
The Israeli government has intensified in the recent years its Judaization projects in Occupied Jerusalem in an attempt to impose a Jewish fait accompli in the city.
Maariv newspaper reported that the Israeli government approved a plan of a 50-million-shekel budget for the development of the Old City in Jerusalem and the construction of underground elevators and passages that reach the Jewish Quarter and al-Buraq Wall.
The scheme requires large-scale excavations under al-Buraq square, which threatens the Arab and Islamic archeological sites in the area.
The Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter, "The government's weekly meeting was held today in the tunnels under the Western Wall (al-Buraq Wall) and we have made several decisions that will strengthen the steadfastness of Jerusalem, our capital."
The scheme approved by the government also includes the construction of an air-train linking the Jerusalem train station to al-Buraq Wall in order to facilitate the movement of 130,000 Israelis to al-Buraq Square. The distance of the 40-car train will be 1,400 meters and it will run at a speed of 21 kilometers per hour.
The Israeli government has intensified in the recent years its Judaization projects in Occupied Jerusalem in an attempt to impose a Jewish fait accompli in the city.
The Israeli government is expected to approve on Sunday a plan to intensify Jewish presence in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem, home to the holy al-Aqsa Mosque—the third holiest site in Islam.
According to the Hebrew-speaking Maariv newspaper, the Israeli government is set to give green light for the construction of elevators leading from Jerusalem's Old City to the Buraq Wall at an estimated cost of NIS 50 million.
Included in the plan are the construction of pedestrian tunnels and the development of the infrastructure so as to boost tourism and prop up Jews’ influx to the Buraq Wall.
As part of the project, large-scale excavations will be carried out underneath the Buraq Wall in a move that is expected to result in fissures and collapses around archaeological and holy Islamic sites.
According to the Hebrew-speaking Maariv newspaper, the Israeli government is set to give green light for the construction of elevators leading from Jerusalem's Old City to the Buraq Wall at an estimated cost of NIS 50 million.
Included in the plan are the construction of pedestrian tunnels and the development of the infrastructure so as to boost tourism and prop up Jews’ influx to the Buraq Wall.
As part of the project, large-scale excavations will be carried out underneath the Buraq Wall in a move that is expected to result in fissures and collapses around archaeological and holy Islamic sites.
13 may 2017
An updated study by the Al-Quds Center for Israeli and Palestinian Studies, revealed that the number of Palestinians, killed by Israeli fire since October 1, 2015, has arrived to 309 Palestinians, including Saba’ Nidal Obeid, who was fatally shot on Friday, May 12, 2017.
Al-Quds Center stated that the soldiers have killed eighty Palestinians in the Hebron governorate, 64 in Jerusalem, 29 in Ramallah, 24 in Jenin, 21 in Nablus, 18 in Bethlehem, 6 in Tulkarem, 6 in Salfit, 4 in Qalqilia, one in Tubas, and 35 in the Gaza Strip.
Among the slain Palestinians are 83 children; the youngest of them was an infant, identified as Ramadan Mohammad Thawabta, only eight months of age, who suffocated to death by Israeli gas bombs, fired at his family’s home.
The center added that the soldiers also killed 28 women, including 10 children, in the same timeframe, the youngest of them was Rahaf Hassan, two years of age, who was killed along with her pregnant mother, Nour, 30, in October of last year, after the soldiers fired missiles at homes on Gaza.
Israel is still holding the corpses of seven Palestinians who were killed since October 1st, 2015, as an act of punishment against their families.
Among the slain Palestinians are Sa’id al-Amro, who also held a Jordanian citizenship, in addition to Bashar Mohammad Masalha, Mohammad Ayyad and Abdul-Rahman Barghouthi, who were American citizens.
It is worth mentioning that a Sudanese man, identified as Kamel Hassan, 32, was killed by the soldiers, in February of last year, allegedly after stabbing an Israeli soldier in the central bus station in Ashkelon, causing moderate injuries.
Al-Quds Center stated that the soldiers have killed eighty Palestinians in the Hebron governorate, 64 in Jerusalem, 29 in Ramallah, 24 in Jenin, 21 in Nablus, 18 in Bethlehem, 6 in Tulkarem, 6 in Salfit, 4 in Qalqilia, one in Tubas, and 35 in the Gaza Strip.
Among the slain Palestinians are 83 children; the youngest of them was an infant, identified as Ramadan Mohammad Thawabta, only eight months of age, who suffocated to death by Israeli gas bombs, fired at his family’s home.
The center added that the soldiers also killed 28 women, including 10 children, in the same timeframe, the youngest of them was Rahaf Hassan, two years of age, who was killed along with her pregnant mother, Nour, 30, in October of last year, after the soldiers fired missiles at homes on Gaza.
Israel is still holding the corpses of seven Palestinians who were killed since October 1st, 2015, as an act of punishment against their families.
Among the slain Palestinians are Sa’id al-Amro, who also held a Jordanian citizenship, in addition to Bashar Mohammad Masalha, Mohammad Ayyad and Abdul-Rahman Barghouthi, who were American citizens.
It is worth mentioning that a Sudanese man, identified as Kamel Hassan, 32, was killed by the soldiers, in February of last year, allegedly after stabbing an Israeli soldier in the central bus station in Ashkelon, causing moderate injuries.
6 may 2017
The Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially approved on Friday all the resolutions announced during its 201st session including the resolutions of "Occupied Palestine" and the “Educational and cultural institutions in the occupied Arab territories" which denounce the Israeli violations of the Palestinian cultural heritage.
22 countries voted in favor of a resolution stipulating that Israel occupies Jerusalem and has no right in the Old City, 10 countries voted against while 23 countries abstained.
The UNESCO Executive Board expressed regret at the Israeli authorities' refusal to stop their ongoing excavations and illegal projects and practices in Jerusalem especially in the Old City.
The Board condemned Israel's rejection of appointing a permanent representative of the UNESCO in Jerusalem to provide information on all aspects of the UNESCO's areas of concern on a regular basis.
The Board stressed the urgent need to send the UNESCO Reactive Monitoring Mission to the Old City of Jerusalem.
It decided to include these issues in the agenda of its 202nd session within the resolution of "Occupied Palestine".
22 countries voted in favor of a resolution stipulating that Israel occupies Jerusalem and has no right in the Old City, 10 countries voted against while 23 countries abstained.
The UNESCO Executive Board expressed regret at the Israeli authorities' refusal to stop their ongoing excavations and illegal projects and practices in Jerusalem especially in the Old City.
The Board condemned Israel's rejection of appointing a permanent representative of the UNESCO in Jerusalem to provide information on all aspects of the UNESCO's areas of concern on a regular basis.
The Board stressed the urgent need to send the UNESCO Reactive Monitoring Mission to the Old City of Jerusalem.
It decided to include these issues in the agenda of its 202nd session within the resolution of "Occupied Palestine".
2 may 2017
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted on a resolution that describes Israel as an occupying power, denying its sovereignty claims over all of Jerusalem.
The decision avers that Israel occupies the city of Jerusalem and has no right in the Old City. It also stipulates that the cemeteries in al-Khalil city and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem city are Islamic graveyards.
Twenty countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 10 opposed and 23 abstained. Each of the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Lithuania, Greece, Paraguay, Ukraine, Togo and Germany voted against the resolution.
The decision points to the historical, heritage and cultural aspects of Occupied Jerusalem that create bonds among Muslims and Christians in the occupied city.
The resolution stresses the importance to send a UNESCO representative to Occupied Jerusalem in order to monitor Israeli Judaization practices in Jerusalem.
The decision avers that Israel occupies the city of Jerusalem and has no right in the Old City. It also stipulates that the cemeteries in al-Khalil city and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem city are Islamic graveyards.
Twenty countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 10 opposed and 23 abstained. Each of the United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Lithuania, Greece, Paraguay, Ukraine, Togo and Germany voted against the resolution.
The decision points to the historical, heritage and cultural aspects of Occupied Jerusalem that create bonds among Muslims and Christians in the occupied city.
The resolution stresses the importance to send a UNESCO representative to Occupied Jerusalem in order to monitor Israeli Judaization practices in Jerusalem.
