Palestinians protest against settlement and Judaization in Sheikh Jarrah area

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, — 200 Palestinian citizens and foreign activists went on a march on Saturday evening in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem in protest at Israel’s settlement and Judaization activities in the holy city.

The protesters chanted slogans calling for removing the Israeli settlers from the Palestinian homes that seized.

They also carried banners demanding Israel to end its settlement and Judaization activities in all Jerusalem, especially in the areas of Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and Ras Al-Amud.

In separate incidents, dozens of Palestinians including a journalist and foreign activists on Saturday suffocated or fainted when Israeli troops fired tear gas grenades at an anti-wall march organized in Beit Ummar village in Al-Khalil city.

The protesters tried to reach the Palestinian citizens’ lands which the Israeli occupation authority intend to annex and other lands adjacent to Karmi Tsur settlement when the troops attacked them.

In Al-Khalil city, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) tightened its military measures in the old city and the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Palestinian citizens told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that the IOF troops deliberately on Friday tightened the blockade on the old city in order to prevent the Palestinian worshipers from reaching the Ibrahimi Mosque for Friday prayers.

Palestinian official sources estimated that 8, 000 worshipers managed to reach the Mosque, although the IOF troops set up barriers at all entrances to the old city and metal detectors at the Mosque’s gates.

The IOF troops also turned three Palestinian houses in Al-Khalil into military posts and remained inside them for many hours. They also detained before sunset dozens of Palestinians at the entrance to Tel Rumeida neighborhood in the city.

On Saturday evening, the IOF troops kidnapped five protesters during a peaceful march organized by Youth against settlements organization in Al-Khalil city in protest at the continued closure of Shuhada street in the city.

In another context, trade union sources said that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) arrested 200 Palestinian workmen from the West Bank working inside the 1948 occupied lands during two weeks.

The sources explained that units of Israeli policemen and soldiers had waged since the beginning of this month a wide arrest campaign in Yaffa, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Nazareth and other areas and arrested dozens of Palestinian workmen, 20 of them possessed work permits issued by the Israeli civil administration.