October 2021… Violations against the dead and Al-Aqsa... Demolition and displacement... Dozens of arrests
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center issued its monthly report for the month of October, during which it monitored the Israeli violations in the city of Jerusalem.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that the occupation authorities were not satisfied with the policy of violations and attacks on Jerusalemites through demolitions and daily arrests, but also extended to violations against the dead, by bulldozing the land of the Yusufiya Cemetery and turning it into a public park.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
The settlers’ incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque continued through the Dung Gate, whose keys have been controlled by the occupation authorities since the occupation of the city of Jerusalem. In October, 2707 settlers and Jewish students stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, during the morning and afternoon incursions periods, and most of the intruders performed collective and individual prayers in Al-Aqsa, guarded by the police, especially with the decision of the occupation court that allowed settlers to perform silent prayers in Al-Aqsa during their incursions. The court's decision considered the Jewish prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque a "legitimate act that cannot be criminalized."
The occupation authorities continued to prevent West Bank residents from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially on Fridays, and worked to erect barriers at the gates of the Old City and Al-Aqsa, and deported West Bank residents to the checkpoints at the entrances to Jerusalem.
The Yusufiya Cemetery/ Martyrs Memorial
The occupation municipality and the “Nature and Parks Authority” turned a part of the Yusufiya Cemetery / Martyrs Memorial, into a public park, after the court allowed them to resume work inside the cemetery’s land and rejected the appeal submitted by the Islamic Cemetery Care Committee, which demanded to stop the work in the cemetery.
Since the beginning of last October, the occupation teams and the “Nature and parks Authority” hastened the work of digging, laying earth and razing the land of the Yusufiya Cemetery / Martyrs Memorial, which has an area of more than 4 dunums, during which bones, a skull, a jaw and teeth were exposed, and work stopped inside the cemetery’s land. Several days later, the Cemetery Care Committee in Jerusalem submitted a request to the Magistrate's Court to prevent excavation and exhumation of the graves of the dead in the land of cemetery. Several days later, the court rejected the appeal and the occupation’s crews worked for the last two weeks of October to turn the land into a garden, and its entrances were closed, iron fences and wires were put in, and no entry was allowed, and iron plates, earth, grass, and water sprinklers were placed therein.
Over the course of several days, the Jerusalemites protested at the gate of the cemetery, trying to enter it to prevent tampering with the existing graves, and they also performed prayers in the place, where the occupation forces suppressed the presence several times with bombs and beatings, and carried out arrests and expulsions from the cemetery, including the head of the Graves Committee, Haj Mustafa Abu Zahra, a member of the committee, Ahmed Dajani, and Hamza Hijazi.
Arrests
The occupation forces continued their daily campaign of arrests in the city of Jerusalem, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem monitored 232 cases of arrests from the city last October, including: 7 children / less than the age of responsibility - less than 12 years old, 102 boys and 7 women, including two minors.
The information center stated that there were more than 100 field arrests from the streets of Jerusalem, "Damascus Gate, Herods Gate", and the adjacent areas, and from the Yusufiya Cemetery, where the occupation forces deliberately pursued young men and boys while they were sitting in the area of Damascus Gate, and assaulted them with beatings and grenades. The center explained that most of the detainees were released on the condition that they be expelled from the place of detention "Jerusalem Streets".
The forces deliberately beat the detainees during the arrest and detention inside the observation rooms in the Damascus Gate area, and some of them were referred to hospitals for treatment while under arrest.
The occupation authorities also issued 3 administrative detention orders against the Jerusalemite prisoners.
Cancellation of the right of residence
As part of the policy of pursuing the freed prisoners, the "Minister of Justice" in the occupation government and the legal advisor approved the decision to suspend the identity of the released prisoner Salah Hammouri on the pretext that "he constitutes a danger to the security of the state and is not loyal to it and is an active member of the Popular Front."
The occupation authorities also suspended the health insurance of the freed prisoner, Mohammad Farhan, who spent more than 7 years in the occupation’s prisons.
Banning activities
By a decision of the Minister of Security in the occupation government, the occupation authorities banned two events in Jerusalem last month, a “sports” event in Burj al-Laqlaq in the Old City of Jerusalem, after summoning the football and handing him a decision banning the football tournament. In the "Monastery of Beit Ibrahim" in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood / Silwan, after the start of the event, the occupation intelligence summoned the director of the Silwan Club - the organizer of the event - and handed him the ban decision during the investigation.
The Center explained that the intelligence stormed the event after the French Consul General left the venue, who participated in its opening, noting that the Silwan Club had organized it in cooperation with the Palestinian National Theater “Al Hakawati” and the National Conservatory of Music, Caravan - Mobile Theatre, with the support of the United Nations Development Program.
Demolition
The occupation municipality continued its demolitions in the city of Jerusalem, and the self-demolition process escalated, as Jerusalemites are forced to demolish their housesby themselves in order to avoid paying heavy fines, "demolition fees to the municipality's crews and accompanying forces."
The Information Center monitored the demolition of 11 facilities in October, 8 of which were self-demolished by their owners, and among the facilities were "9 homes, a commercial facility, and a fence."
Deportations
Last October, the occupation authorities issued 13 deportation decisions, one of which was against Sheikh Ekrima Sabri for a week, after storming his house and summoning him for interrogation, in addition to 7 cases of deportation from Al-Aqsa Mosque, 4 from the Old City, and one case from Jerusalem.
