Israeli plan to seize Palestinian land east of Jerusalem’s Old City

Israeli plan to seize Palestinian land east of Jerusalem’s Old City

Jerusalem center for social and economic rights reported on Monday that Jewish settlement institutions plan to seize a Palestinian land located to the east of the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, especially in the area stretching from Beit Orot settlement to Gethsemane church.

The research and documentation department of the center said in a report that the Israeli settlers organize marches throughout this land on a regular basis.

The report pointed out that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) in Jerusalem demanded the Palestinian citizens in the area to establish a lighting network along the road the Israeli settlers walk across during marches, and carried out excavations in order to build infrastructure for surveillance cameras intended for securing the movement of settlers.

The report also said that the settlers, claiming they are from the society of development or from the Vatican, gave the Palestinian residents tempting offers to buy this land.

The Jerusalem center said that this land is one of the most sensitive sites around the Old City and the only remaining Islamic land in the area, where the Palestinian families of Al-Ansari, Al-Alami and Al-Khalidi are still living.

In another context, the higher follow-up committee of 1948 Palestinians called for participating in the popular march it intends to organize next Thursday in protest at the prosecution of Palestinians on a charge of killing Israeli terrorist Natan Zada who committed Shafa Amr massacre.

The committee said on Monday that the protest will take place in the courtyard of the central court in Haifa city simultaneously with the start of the trial at nine o’clock in the morning.
 
The committee expressed its rejection of prosecuting the Palestinians who were among others targeted by the Israeli terrorist and called for taking legal action against the parties and institutions that helped Zada to commit his horrible massacre in August 2005.
 
Natan Zada, an extremist Israeli settler, stormed a bus in the city of Shafa Amr in the 1948 occupied lands and opened fire on passengers which led to the killing of five Palestinians and the injury of dozens others before a number of Palestinian young men were able to kill him.