2018: Targeting Islamic and Christian holy sites…7 Martyrs and 1736 arrests
Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC) issued its annual report for 2018, in which it monitored Israeli violations against the city of Jerusalem and its people. The opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem and the martyrdom of 7 martyrs, violating the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque by the settlers and with full government support and the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher were amongst the most significant events in the city of Jerusalem in 2018.
In addition, arrests and summonses against Jerusalemites continued. Last year, the minister of Jerusalem and its governor, clerics, and reformers were among those arrested and summoned for interrogation multiple times. Demolitions, confiscation of land and the “leakage” of property in the city to the benefit of the settlers continued.
Details...
The United States of America opened its new embassy in Jerusalem in mid-May, in conjunction with the 71st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, in recognition of President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2016, in violation of the rules of international law and Security Council resolutions.
Rise of seven Martyrs
The occupation authorities continued to execute the Palestinians on the pretext of attempting to carry out stabbing attacks. The use of weapons to kill the Palestinians was the first option for the occupation soldiers, and the soldiers did not stop there. They close the entire scene and obstruct the arrival of Palestinian ambulance crews, and prevent them from providing necessary medical aid for the injured, who at most cases was left on the floor bleeding to death.
During the past year, 7 Palestinian were martyred (in chronological order):
1. 18/3/2018 AbdulRahman Bani Fadel, 28 years old, from Aqraba village near Nablus, was shot by Israeli soldiers in Al-Wad Street in the Old City of Jerusalem after he stabbed an Israeli guard.
2. 20/5/2018 Jerusalemite prisoner Aziz Aweisat, 53, from the village of Jabal Al-Mukabber south of Jerusalem, passed away in “Assaf Harofeh” hospital after suffering a stroke in the Ramle prison clinic. The prisoners' affairs committee showed that the direct cause of death was a severe heart attack. During autopsy, some bruises in the form of visible spots appeared on the body of the martyr in several parts of his body; Aweisat was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
3. 17/8/2018 Ahmed Mahameed, from the city of Umm Al-Fahem, was shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces after he tried to carry out a stabbing attack in the area of Bab Al-Majles in the Old City of Jerusalem.
4. 18/9/2018 Mohammed Yousef Sha'ban Alayan, 26, from Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers after he tried to stab a settler in Al-Musrara Street in the city.
5. 20/11/2018 Abdul Rahman Ali Abu Jamal, from the village of Jabal Al-Mukabber, south of Jerusalem, was killed after being severely beaten on the pretext of attempting to carry out a stabbing attack inside the Israeli police station O’z located on the lands of the village. The family denied the police allegations, and no recordings were revealed to prove that Abu Jamal had carried out an attack inside the police station surrounded by cameras, wires and high fences.
6. 13/12/2018 Majd Jamal Mteir, 26, from Qalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers after stabbing two policemen in Al-Wad Street in the Old City of Jerusalem.
7. 20/12/2018 Mohammed Qasem Mohammed Abbasi, 17 years old, was killed when his vehicle was shot at near the Bet El checkpoint north of Al-Bireh city. He was on his way to Nablus with three of his cousins (who survived miraculously). They confirmed that they were subjected to heavy gunfire for no reason.
WHIC explained that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to detain the bodies of four martyrs in the refrigerators: the body of the Martyr Mesbah Abu Sbeih since October 2016, the body of the Martyr Fadi Qunbar since January 2017, the body of Martyr Aziz Aweisat since last May, the body of Martyr Abdel Rahman Abu Jamal since last November.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Year after year, the occupation authorities try to impose their sovereignty on Al-Aqsa Mosque by closing it, preventing prayers from being held under any pretext, facilitating the incursions of settlers, imposing restrictions on the entry of Muslims, and intervening in the renovation work carried out by the Islamic Awqaf Department and attempt to disrupt the work and arrest the staff of the "Construction Committee”,in addition to harassment against young men and women and children, and arrest of Awqaf employees such as guards and ordering to stay away from Al-Aqsa for varying periods not to mention the regular prayers and marches held outside the gates of Al-Aqsa by the settlers that remarkably increase during the Jewish holidays.
The information center monitored the Israeli violations in Al-Aqsa during 2018. The most significant were:
OnJuly 27th, Al-Aqsa Mosque was closed and under siege for four hours, and entry to it was prevented after the Friday Noon prayer until after the Afternoon prayer, after clashes erupted in its courtyards.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported that Israeli soldiers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque immediately after the Friday Noon prayer. They attacked the worshipers, including "women, children and the elderly" with sound grenades and rubber bullets. They then forcibly evacuated its courtyards including Al-Aqsa Director Sheikh Omar Al-Kiswani and Islamic Awqaf employees, and closed all gates. During the closure of Al-Aqsa, Israeli soldiers stormed Al-Qibali mosque and executed multiple arrests of young men. Senior officers and former mayor of the occupation municipality Nir Barakat stormed Al-Aqsa.
The Center added that the religious authorities and national forces announced an open sit-in at the gates of Al-Aqsa until it is reopened, although Muslims were able to enter it after performing the Afternoon prayer in the courtyard of "Ghazali" in front of Lions Gate.
On August 17, the occupation forces closed Al-Aqsa Mosque from the afternoon until dawn, and prevented the Evening and Night prayers from being held, and forcibly evacuated the worshipers, and remained the guards of Al-Aqsa in the mosque alone. The forces searched all mosques and courtyards, after they shot and killed Ahmed Mahameed near Al-Majles Gate. A sit-in was announced at the gates of Al-Aqsa to protest against closing it, and hundreds of worshippers performed the Evening and Night prayers at the gates despite being suppressed and assaulted.
In May, the Israeli occupation forces attacked the employees of the Islamic Awqaf by beating, pushing, arresting, detaining and isolating them from Al-Aqsa, and forcibly evicting the Palestinians from the courtyards.
In June, "the beginning of the last ten days of Ramadan," the occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and attacked a group of fasting worshipers who were reciting the Koran, and arrested a group of them. They also besieged worshipers in Al-Qibali mosque, to secure the settlers’ incursions into Al-Aqsa.
In September, the occupation forces attacked the worshipers and the employees of the Islamic Awqaf Department, beating and arresting them.
Settlers' incursions
The Israeli occupation authorities have allowed the settlers to desecrate Al-Aqsa during the week except on Fridays and Saturdays, under the cover of "foreign tourism". It takes place on two sessions; morning and afternoon and are conducted through Dung Gate which is controlled by the occupation authorities since the occupation of the city of Jerusalem in 1967.
The Islamic Awqaf Department pointed out that 29,801 settlers broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque during 2018, an increase of about 17% from last year.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that the alleged temple groups are exploiting Jewish holidays to carry out massive and intensive incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, and deliberately storm the mosque in their religious clothing, barefoot. Last year, several cases of mass and public prayers were recorded in Al-Aqsa Mosque, guarded by the occupation forces.
The information center added that the month that witnessed the most incursions by the alleged "temple groups" was September, when 5487 settlers stormed it as "Yom Kippur, the Jewish New Year, and Sukkot holidays" fell in that month, followed by April with 3899 settlers (Passover holiday)and the month of May, 3798 settlers to coincide with the anniversary of the "occupation of the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem" and the month of July with "3800 settlers" in memory of the "Destruction of the Temple."
In the second half of last year, Knesset members intensified their incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to allow them to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, more than two years after banning them from entering back in November, 2015. Among the intruders were Israeli Agriculture Minister "Uri Ariel" and MKs Sharin Hischel, Yehuda Glick, Shuli Maalem and Amir Ohana, knowing that "Ariel and Glick and Maalem" stormed Al-Aqsa more than once last year.At the end of last year,Glick stormed Al-Aqsa in memorial of the first anniversary of the death of his wife; he also stormed the mosque in the beginning of the year 2018.
In a dangerous precedent, the alleged temple groups called for the removal of Muslims from Al-Aqsa Mosque on the last Friday of march so that the settlers could make their offerings on the occasion of the Jewish Passover, and placed these calls on some of the gates of the mosque and published them on social media pages advocating the “Temple Groups ".
In May, Israeli settlers raised the Israeli flag in Al-Aqsa courtyards and held mass prayers in several places to commemorate "the anniversary of the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem."
In June, two settlers, under the supervision of the "Students for the Temple Mount" movement, held their wedding in Al-Aqsa Mosque with their children and concluded the wedding with a kiss.
In September, one of the occupation officers brought a bottle of wine into the mosque and wandered through the courtyards. The guards then confronted him and forced him to take it out.
Last December during the "Hanukkah" (Lights festival), the settlers lit the candlestick outside Lions Gate and Al-Hadeed Gate (gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque). They performed their special prayers, formed dances and singing rings and drank wine on the thresholds of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Bab Al-Rahma "Eastern part of Al-Aqsa Mosque"
Last year, the occupation authorities targeted worshipers who pray or sit in Bab Al-Rahma area, "the eastern part of Al-Aqsa Mosque." The Israeli occupation police stationed in the mosque or at the observation points in the Bab Al-Rahma area inside Al-Aqsa courtyards, take pictures of worshippers or take their IDs and subject them to field interrogation or actual arrest at times, followed by orders of isolation from the mosque for varying periods, and in light of that the police facilitate the presence of settlers "during the period of daily incursions" and most of the intruders perform prayers.
The center pointed out that in June, the forces destroyed the hill of Bab Al-Rahma by uprooting the olive trees and destroying the stone benches and stairs in the area, after hundreds of Muslims in late Ramadan launched a campaign under the slogan "Bab Al-Rahma ... cleaning and reconstruction" in order to improve and beautify the area of Bab Al-Rahma.
Church of the Holy Sepulcher
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was closed for three consecutive days in February, February 25-27 by a decree of the patriarchs and heads of the churches, in protest against the intention measures taken by Jerusalem Municipality to collect the “Arnona” tax on the properties belonging to the churches. The church was opened after the issuance of the Prime Minister of the occupation Benjamin Netanyahu and the former mayor of the occupation municipality, Nir Barakat, a decision to freeze the imposition of the tax. During the closing days, Christians performed prayersat its doors.
In October, the Israeli occupation forces arrested a monk from the Coptic Church and assaulted others during a sit-in organized by the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem in front of the Coptic Monastery of the Sultan next to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to protest against the refusal of the occupation authorities to allow the Coptic Church to renovate the Sultan Coptic Monastery while the municipality is renovating the monastery in favor of the Abyssinian without the approval of the Coptic Church.
In March, during the Easter celebrations, the Israeli occupation forces attacked the "Palm Sunday" march in Jerusalem as they lifted the Palestinian flag. The soldiers prevented the participants from raising the Palestinian flag and beat them.
Bab Al-Rahma Cemetery
During the past year, the settlers have intensified their incursions into Bab Al-Rahma cemetery adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque wall on the eastern side, andunder the protection of the Israeli police. They performed the special prayers and ritualsbetween the tombs of Muslims towards the sealed door of Bab Al-Rahma. In a dangerous precedent, they placed amulets between stones and holes, like they do at the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque "Al-Buraq Wall,” as well as Al-Hadeed Gate, in addition to blowing the trumpet in the cemetery.
The occupation authorities also continued to prevent the burial in parts of the cemetery of Bab Al-Rahma. In the first half of last year, the Nature and Parks Authority staff carried out excavations in the cemetery under the pretext of placing iron fences in the area, especially in the area known as the Salawneh cemetery; several tombstones were damaged.
The occupation forces also raided the cemetery of Bab Al-Rahma and fired grenades between the graves towards the protestors who refused to violate the sanctity of the dead. The forces executed arrests inside the cemetery, and in an attempt to repel the protests in the cemetery, the occupation authorities issued last year more than 30 orders preventing Jerusalemites from entering the cemetery for different periods between one week and one month.
In Al-Mujahideencemetery in Salah al-Din Street in Jerusalem, the Israeli occupation forces destroyed the tombstones of the martyrs of Jerusalemin March, and destroyed a Koranic verse and the words "tombs of martyrs of the uprising of Jerusalem."
1736 cases of arrest in Jerusalem
Not a day would pass in 2018 without arresting Jerusalemites where by raiding their homes or from the streets of the city or from Al-Aqsa Mosque. There were 1736 cases of arrests in the occupied city of Jerusalem, including the arrest of 33 children "less than the age of responsibility - less than 12 years old, 461 minors, 63 females, including 2 minors and 4 elderly women and 10 elderly men.
The geographical distribution of arrests in the city of Jerusalem was 473 detainees from the village of Esawyeh, 286 from Silwan, 218 from Old City of Jerusalem, 216 from Shu'fat refugee camp and Anata village, 115 from Al-Tur, 282 from Al-Aqsa Mosque and its gates and the roads of the Old City, 51 from Jabal Al-Mukabber, 22 from Beit Hanina, 17 from Sur Baher, 17 from Kufor Aqab, 16 from Wad Al-Joz, 14 from Shu'fat, 6 from Al-Sowaneh, and 3 from Sheikh Jarrah,
The information center said that the Israeli occupation authorities targeted Fatah cadres in the city of Jerusalem and the security services by arresting and summoning them for interrogation, including the Minister of Jerusalem and a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO Adnan Husseini. A decision was issued against Husseini banning him from travelling abroad for three months. The governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith was arrested three times after being appointed governor of the city, and the Israeli authorities issued decisions preventing him from entering the West Bank and preventing contact with Palestinian figures and leaders for 6 months, and forced him to stay away from his house in Silwan and house-arrest for a week.
The information center monitored the arrest of more than 60 Jerusalemite members of the Fatah movement. They were conditionally released after days of detention, most notably preventing entry into the West Bank for varying periods, and some of them were deported from their homes for several days.
The center added that among the detainees last year was Sheikh Dr.Ekrema Said Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Commission and preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, who was arrested in May after storming his house in the neighborhood of Al-Sowaneh. The intelligence agency handed him a decision to prevent him from traveling. Days later, he received another order banning him from entering the West Bank.
In an unprecedented move, the Israeli intelligence services targeted the men of reform in the city of Jerusalem, where they summoned a group of them to investigate against the backdrop of tribal clergy in the city and forced them to drop one of its clauses on the pretext of "violating the law”.
The information center added that the occupation authorities have stepped up their policy of arresting the Palestinian prisoners immediately after their release from the prisons of the occupation, especially prisoners who have spent several years in prison. They would extend the arrest of some of them to present them to court and then be released on harsh conditions, while other are deported from the city of Jerusalem or from his residency for several days.
The center added that before the date of release of most of the prisoners of Jerusalem, the intelligence of the occupation calls on relatives and impose conditions on them. The most prominent of these are the following: Not organizing any ceremony for the freed prisoner outside his home, no celebration in the streets, raising banners and fireworks are also banned, and they constantly threaten to re-arrest the freed prisoner and participants.
The center explained that among the detainees last year was a boy who was wounded by burns and was arrested from inside Al-Maqased hospital after the forces raided the hospital. The center said that despite the boy's need for treatment and his pains and burns, the Israeli occupation arrested him and turned him to an Israeli hospital. He remained under arrest and was interrogated in the hospital, and has been under house-arrest since March 2018.
The center added that the Israeli forces arrested a young Jerusalemite man who was hit by a rubber-coated metal bullet in the head while he was standing in front of his restaurant in the village of Esawyeh. Despite the injury, the forces took the ID of the young man before allowing the ambulance to transfer him to the hospital.
Among the detainees last year was Mrs. Ibtisam Obeid from the village of Esawyeh, under the pretext of "illegal presence in the city." The center noted that Mrs. Obeid was married 16 years ago from a Jerusalemite man, and lived with her family in the village of Esawyeh. She has three children. Her husband attempted to issue her a residency from the Israeli authorities, but all attempts were rejected under the pretext of "security prevention".
At the end of May, a 43-year-old Palestinian woman was arrested after being shot by the Israeli occupation forces near the light train station in Shu'fat neighborhood. She was wounded in the right leg. Several days later, the Israeli police decided to release her which falsifies the occupation’s claims to why they opened fire towards the lady.
In September, a young Jerusalemite man, Amir Abu Laban, was severely beaten by guards at the King Hussein Bridge crossing on the Jordanian-Palestinian border. Police pointed their weapons towards him and were ready to shoot him knowing that he is disabled and was returning to Jerusalem after winning an international award.
In violation of the right to education and childhood, the Israeli occupation forces at the beginning of November, harassed the students of Ahmed Sameh School in Al-Thori neighborhood in Silwan. The center explained that 4 members of the intelligence service in civilian dress (3 males and one female) followed 15 students between the ages of 13-14. They were stopped immediately after leaving school and saluted in Arabic, then forced to answer questions and move away from school.
The center added that among the detainees were 39 students who were arrested while they were going to school in the morning hours or while they were returning home after school.
Isolation orders
The occupation authorities issued last year 167 orders against Palestinians banning them from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque for varying periods between one week to 6 months. Thirty women and 13 youths received isolation orders, while 17 people received orders deporting them from the city of Jerusalem and 6 others were banned from entering the West Bank.
Suspending the residency of Jerusalemite deputies and a Martyr’s mother
At the end of April, the Israeli Minister of Interior decided to withdraw the residency of the three Jerusalem deputies Mohammed Abu Ter, Ahmad Attoun, Mohammad Totah and former Minister Khaled Abu Arafeh on the pretext of "disloyalty to Israel and their membership in Hamas movement", after the legal amendment that took place in the Knesset in March which authorizes the Minister of Interior to withdraw residency from Jerusalemites.
The Minister of Interior also decided to withdraw the residency of the mother of Martyr Baha'Alayan, under the pretext of "the attack carried out by her son in 2015 and the family’s attempt to “praise their son for what he has done and try to glorify him through stances and seminars" - according to their claim.
Demolishing 143 establishments in Jerusalem
The occupation municipality has stepped up its policy of demolishing houses and commercial and agricultural establishments in the city of Jerusalem, under the pretext of building without a permit, at a time when the municipality imposes the impossible conditions and the huge costs of licensing procedures that extend for many years.
The municipality forced Jerusalemites to execute the demolition orders and self-demolish their homes, after they were threatened with actual imprisonment and heavy fines. Wadi Hilweh Information Center, monitored late last year"demolition fee" imposed on Jerusalemites that their facilities were demolished several years ago.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center monitored the demolition of 143 structures, some of them under construction. They were as follows: 2 residential buildings, 40 houses, 52 commercial establishments, 18 containers used as stores / offices, 1 residential barracks, 1 residential room, 1 guard room, 7 barracks for livestock, 3 farms, 2 warehouses, 8 retaining walls, 6 garages and 2 chicken coops.
The center said that Silwan was the village with the most demolitions as the occupation municipality demolished 30 structures, followed by Shu'fat refugee camp 21, Beit Hanina 19, Esawyeh 18, Jabal Al-Mukabber 17, in addition to other demolitions executed in other neighborhoods.
The Israeli occupation authorities also razed three plots of land in the city of Jerusalem (Esawyeh, Silwan and Beit Safafa). They also issued a decision to vacate a house and a room in the village of Silwan under the pretext of “dangerous building” due to excavation works underneath and settlers' works in an adjacent land. The center explained that excavation works continue in the neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh despite serious damage to the facilities of the neighborhood, where collapses, cracks and landings occurred.
The center pointed out that among the demolished structures were 24 facilities that were demolished by their owners.
The Israeli occupation authorities also continued to distribute demolitionnotices in the city under the pretext of unlicensed construction in all neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
Settlement projects and seizing homes
February: The occupation authorities began implementing the upper floors of the project "Beit Haliba / Beit Al-Jawhar in Al-Buraq Square, about 200 meters west of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The settlement project includes two floors above the ground and one floor under the ground.
April: The Israeli occupation forces bulldozed and removed dozens of perennial olive trees in the village of Sur Baher, south of Jerusalem, to implement a project for "retired army and police personnel". The 56 Dunoms(56000 square meters) of land are owned by several families from the village.
Elad settlement association also seized three houses belonging to Rweidi family in Al-Ain Street in Silwan, with the support of the Israeli occupation forces who broke into the houses and evicted them from their residents.
July: The "Ateret Cohnim Settlement Association" opened its settlement project under the name of the "Center for the Heritage of the Jews of Yemen" in Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan, within the Abu Nab property, which was seized in 2015. The cost of the project is nearly NIS 4.5 million ($1.2 million) funded by the so-called "Ministry of Jerusalem and Ministry of Culture."
August: The Israeli municipality decided to confiscate dozens of acres from the land of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the pretext of "gardening / planting and installing irrigation canals and roads." The decision threatens tens of acres from the lands of Silwan in the neighborhoods of Wadi Al-Rababeh, Wadi Hilweh, Bi’er Ayoub and Nabi Daoud. All the land belongs to the people and families of the village and parts for the Greek Orthodox Church.
October: Settlers took control of 3 properties in Silwan and the Old City of Jerusalem, as follows:
A residential apartment in the neighborhood of Batn Al-Hawa / Central Neighborhood in Silwan. It is located within a 5-storey residential building that was completely handed over to the settlers in 2015 except for the apartment where Jawad Abu Sneineh lived under a leasing contract. The building was leaked to the settlers by Jamal Sarhan.
A property in Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan, a two-story house and an 800-square-meter plot of land that was leaked by its owners, members of Fteiha family, who live in the United States.
A property in Aqabet Darwish / Old City of Jerusalem is a 3-story building consisting of residential units with a total area of about 500 square meters. The property overlooks the main road leading to Bab Hutta, and directly overlooks Al-Aqsa Mosque in the north. The property was leaked by its owners. More than two months after it was leaked, the circumstances have not yet been clarified. The accusations are still being exchanged between several parties about the culprit and the main role players in the deal.
November: The Israeli Supreme Court rejected petitions to Jerusalemite families in Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the city against the decision to evict them from their homes.
The center added that the Supreme Court rejected the petition filed by the residents of Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood and allowed the Ateret Cohnim settlement association to continue expelling dozens of families from their homes on more than five Dunoms as the court claimed that thehomes of Palestinians were built on a land owned by Jews before the Nakba of the Palestinian people in 1948. The Center noted that the threatened land has between 30-35 residential buildings built on it, where nearly 80 families with more than 450 people live, and the whole population has been living in the neighborhood for decades after purchasing lands from previous owners that had all official papers. The settlement association began the delivery of notices and eviction orders for the families in September 2015.
The Supreme Court rejected the request of families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to allow them to appeal against the decision to expel them from their homes and to discuss the ownership of the land. The targeted land area is 15 Dunoms, comprising 29 buildings inhabited by more than 100 Palestinian families since the 1950s.
January: The occupation municipality began the construction of a bridge between Al-Thori neighborhood and Nabi Daoud area through Wadi Al-Rababeh in Silwan, under the supervision of the so-called "Jerusalem Development Authority." The planned length of the bridge is 197 meters and 30 meters high.
The occupation authorities also confiscated a storehouse for Abu Hadwan family in Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan, under the pretext of "public benefit", and closed it and removed its contents.
A plan by the occupation municipality "to end the work of UNRWA in the city of Jerusalem"
In a campaign targeting the rights of Palestinian refugees, the former mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barakat announced a plan to end the work of UNRWA in Jerusalem and to replace all its services "health, education and hygiene" with services provided by the Municipality which actually started providing services in October by doing cleaning works in Shu’fat refugee camp, in addition to the storming of the UNRWA clinic in the Old City of Jerusalem by a staff of the Israeli Ministry of Health with the support of the Israeli occupation forces under the pretext of "inspecting medicines inside the pharmacy".
Settlers’ assaults
In the past year, settlers’ assaults continued against Jerusalemites and their property in Jerusalem. The information center monitored the writing of racist slogan lines calling for the killing of Arabs and their deportation from the city and the destruction of vehicles’ tires and the burning of vehicles in the villages and neighborhoods of Jerusalem: Beit Safafa, Dung Gate/ Silwan, Hizma village, Esawyeh, Shu'fat and Beit Hanina. The Jerusalemites accused the Israeli police of failing to enforce the law against settlers who commit crimes on “national” background against the Palestinians.
In February, settlers attacked the Jerusalemite Mustafa Ibrahim Mughrabi, 19, in the Old City of Jerusalem. He was injured with several bruises. Despite his injuries, he was summoned for interrogation. Witnesses were arrested and deported outside Jerusalem. Settlers assaulted four Jerusalemites in the Qatmoun neighborhood of West Jerusalem, injuring them with various fractures and wounds. Several attacks on Israeli bus drivers were also reported, including physical assault or verbal threats and verbal abuse of Arabs.
During the settlers' celebration of the so-called "Day of the Unification of Jerusalem" in May, tens of thousands of Jews were present in the eastern and western parts of the city during their annual march, known as the "flag dance," which started from the streets of West Jerusalem towards the east, and raised Israeli and American flags as well asslogans for the alleged temple. The settlers assaulted Jerusalemites with racist expressions.
In October, dozens of settlers attacked shops and houses of Jerusalemites in Al-Musrara area in Jerusalem, Al-Wad and Damascus Gate streets during their celebrations on the last day of Sukkot holiday.
Suppression of freedom of opinion
The occupation authorities continued to suppress the cultural and social events last year in the city of Jerusalem under pretexts of being "organized by the Palestinian Authority or by terrorist organizations".
The information center monitored the suppression and prevention of several activities, most notably the "suppression of the protest against the American president's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the occupation in late 2017 and against the opening of the embassy in the middle of the year. A ceremony for the principals of the prestigious schools, the opening ceremony of the renovation of Terra Santa School, dinner for Jerusalem journalists, Palestinian marathon in Jerusalem against the marathon of the Israeli municipality, a special event for Women Day, a sit-in on Earth Day, a sit-in against the flags dance on the anniversary of the occupation of the east part of Jerusalem, a prisoners’ activity in Esawyeh, a ceremony for the "National Day of the Russian Federation", a breakfast for Jerusalemite journalists during the month of Ramadan, an event for honoring teachers on the twentieth anniversary of the death of the educator Hosni Ashhab, a special dialogue seminar on the city of Jerusalem,"Our children deserve a warm winter in Jerusalem", sit-ins supporting the cadres of Fateh movement and another supporting prisoner Isra’ Ja’abees were all activities and events suppressed in the city of Jerusalem last year.
In late September 2018, the Israeli occupation forces arrested Rami Fakhouri, his father and more than 25 young men who participated in his wedding, including the singer, under the pretext of "raising the flags of Hamas and singing songs of resistance and praising the martyrdom attacks." Everybody was released by the groom who was transferred to administrative detention for 6 months.
Closing Elia Media Group
In a crackdown on media institutions, authorities closed the Elia Youth Media Foundation in Jerusalem in April considering it as a "terrorist organization" and produce inciting videos and supportive of terrorism.
It is noteworthy that Elia Media Group is an institution that provides information services to the Jerusalem institutions in addition to developing the capabilities of young media professionals, increasing the opportunity for leadership and development, and spreading the spirit of volunteering in the community.
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