March 2023…A Martyrs at the doorsteps of Al-Aqsa Mosque…hundreds of arrests and dozens of deportations
The occupation authorities, with their various institutions and settler groups, continued to carry out attacks and violations in the city of Jerusalem, during the month of March which were monitored by the Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem, in its monthly report.
A martyr on the doorsteps of Al-Aqsa
On 31/3/2023, in the last minutes of the last day of March, the young man, Mohammad Al-Aseebi, 26 years old, from the village of Hoora in the Negev, was shot dead by the occupation forces at Al-Silsileh Gate, “one of the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” and the police seized his body.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Settler incursions into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque continued, through the dung Gate, whose keys have been controlled by the occupation authorities since the occupation of Jerusalem. The settlers performed public and collective prayers during the storming of Al-Aqsa, protected and guarded by the occupation police.
Among the most prominent attacks and violations in Al-Aqsa Mosque, was at the end of March, and specifically during the last week of it, when the occupation police extended the period of incursions for half an hour, and the Dung Gate was closed at 11:30 instead of 11:00 a.m., and the alleged Temple groups said that this extension came to compensate for the cancellation of the "afternoon" incursion periods during the month of Ramadan.
On March 26th, the occupation forces stormed the Al-Qibli prayer hall in Al-Aqsa Mosque, expelled the men and women who are stationed inside Al-Aqsa (I’tikaf), and prevented them from staying inside. They arrested some of them while they were leaving Al-Aqsa, as dozens of worshippers had been in I’tikaf in Al-Aqsa since the first day of Ramadan. The police banned I’tikaf in Al-Aqsa for the rest days of the week.
On March 23rd, the forces stormed the Al-Qibli prayer hall and arrested two young men who were in i'tikaf.
On the 24th and 31st of March, "the first and second Fridays of the month of Ramadan", the forces stormed Al-Aqsa and removed and confiscated a banner that hung on the wall of one of the gates. On the first Friday, they assaulted the fasting worshipers by pushing and beating them during the raid.
With the Jewish Passover approaching, the "alleged Temple" groups began organizing to carry out mass incursions into Al-Aqsa during the Passover holiday from 5-12 April, which falls on the third week of Ramadan, and groups and organizations, with the support of senior rabbis, distributed successive invitations to their supporters and fans to prepare to storm Al-Aqsa. The organizations also called for animal offerings to be brought on Wednesday evening, corresponding to the fifth of April / 14 Ramadan, and to gather at Al-Aqsa gate to try to slaughter the offerings inside it, at a time when 15 rabbis demanded from the occupation government to allow settlers to slaughter the offerings inside Al-Aqsa, and the “Temple Groups” announced that they had allocated sums of money as rewards for settlers who are trying to slaughter a “qurban” in Al-Aqsa Mosque; 25,000 shekels will be given to those who are able to slaughter a “qurban” inside Al-Aqsa, and 2,500 shekels if its activists are arrested inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and in possession of the “qurban.”
Expulsions from Al-Aqsa
The occupation authorities escalated the issuance of decisions to expel Palestinians, especially from the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and this policy is followed by the occupation authorities with the approach of Jewish holidays, in which settler groups carry out massive incursions into Al-Aqsa.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center monitored the issuance of 70 expulsion decisions during the month of March, which included "expulsion and deportation from the Old City, Al-Aqsa, the place of residence, the streets of Jerusalem, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and a ban on entering the West Bank."
The center pointed out that the occupation authorities issued 30 deportation decisions from the Old City, "including the entire Old City and the roads leading to it and Al-Aqsa," and 25 expulsion decisions from Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The center added that among the deportees were 13 women and 12 boys.
Arrests
The occupation authorities continued to carry out arrests in the city of Jerusalem, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center monitored 230 arrest cases during last March, including "3 children / less than 12 years of age, "less than the age of responsibility", 58 boys, and 8 women.
The center stated that more than 80 arrests were made from Al-Aqsa Mosque, its roads, and the streets of Jerusalem, in addition to the arrests from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
The center stated that the occupation authorities transferred 6 Jerusalemites to administrative detention during March.
The occupation police arrested 3 prisoners immediately after their release from prisons and after the end of their sentences.
Settler attacks
Settler attacks on Jerusalemites and their property continued at an escalating pace, with racist motives, and they were as follows:
19/3/2023 Two settlers stormed the Church of Mary Magdalene in the city of Jerusalem, and assaulted the clergy and worshipers with sharp tools and insulted them. An eyewitness who managed to control one of them confirmed that the settlers stormed the church after they took off the “kippa” from their heads. Then they closed the door, and one of them shouted and insulted, while the other stood between the worshipers and hit them with a stick with nails on it.
21/3/2023 The settlers wrote racist slogans and the word "price tag" on a bus and a vehicle in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in addition to damaging the tires of 5 vehicles in the neighborhood.
The settlers also continued to beat Jerusalemites while they were working in the streets of West Jerusalem, by beating, chasing and insulting them.
Demolition and displacement
The occupation municipality and the "Nature and Parks Authority" continued to carry out demolitions in the city of Jerusalem, under the pretext of "building without a permit" or building "on green land where construction is prohibited."
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center monitored 6 demolitions during last March, "a demolition process that was carried out by the owners," which included 5 residential houses and a commercial facility.
The center added that the demolitions led to the displacement of about 27 people from their homes.
The center pointed out that the staff of the "Nature and Parks Authority", after carrying out the demolition and eviction of a commercial facility that had existed for years, hung a sign at the entrances to the facility that read: "An area owned by the Jerusalem Municipality, the Nature and Parks Authority is conducting works to develop a garden... No entry."
Harassment against Jerusalem schools
As part of the Israeli Ministry of Education's interventions in Jerusalem schools, inspectors from the Ministry of Education stormed the Arab Orphan School in the town of Beit Hanina in Jerusalem, without the consent of the guards at the door, under the pretext of "counting the number of students in the school." However, they checked the curricula provided to the students. They also stormed the classrooms without the approval of the administration, and photographed the identities of the teachers, as explained by the Union of Student Parents Committees.
Harassment of the media
Occupation intelligence men stormed the "Marcel Productions" company in Beit Hanina, and the management and employees were handed over summons for investigation, under the pretext of providing media services to Palestine TV. After hours of investigation, the company's management and employees, including correspondents and photographers, were released. The investigation focused on work and providing services for Palestine TV, warning them not to continue.
The raid on Marcel came hours after the Minister of National Security in the occupation government, Itamar Ben Gavir, signed an order to close the headquarters and ban the activities of the official “Voice of Palestine” radio station in occupied Jerusalem and the Palestinian 1948 lands.
Restrictions on health facilities
On March 9, 2023, the occupation forces stormed, in large numbers, Al-Maqased Hospital in the city of Jerusalem, coinciding with the storming and deployment in the streets of the town of Al-Tur.
Ramadan decoration
The occupation forces dismantled the Ramadan decorations hanging in one of the lanes of Bab Hutta area, under the pretext that they were obstructing the police surveillance cameras. They also demanded the residents of Bab al-Silsileh in the Old City of Jerusalem to change the colors of the light bulbs under the pretext that they are "in the colors of the Palestinian flag."
