Occupied Jerusalem - SANA
“This industrial workshop, which the Israeli occupation wants to demolish, along with 200 establishments and factories that are more than 64 years old .. I inherited it from my father.
The owners of establishments in the only industrial zone in Jerusalem will oppose this dangerous threatening scheme and will not allow it to be passed. With these words, Yunus Dweik, the owner of an industrial workshop in the Wadi al-Jouz area, which the occupation intends to demolish in order to establish his threatening scheme.
“The occupation will implement the demolition process in three phases, the implementation of which will last for three years, and the first phase begins with the demolition of the eastern industrial zone of Wadi Al-Joz, then the middle and western, and the implementation of this scheme will cause the loss of thousands of Palestinian workers in Jerusalem who work in the industrial zone, their source of income, in addition to a comprehensive change,” Dweik told SANA reporter. Wadi Al-Joz historical and cultural features as it represents the heart of the Old City and the link between the neighborhoods of the Holy City.
Dweik stressed that the Palestinians will not allow the occupation to pass and implement this plan and will confront the process of Judaization and systematic uprooting, calling on the international community to urgently intervene to prevent the implementation of this settlement scheme, which will cause a change in the civilizational and historical image of the occupied city of Jerusalem.
For his part, Director of the Jerusalem International Center, Hassan Khater, said that the occupation plan to demolish 200 facilities in Wadi Al-Jouz aims to control the industrial zone that forms the heart of the Old City in Jerusalem, and this plan will cause the demolition of hundreds of homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood adjacent to Wadi Al-Joz, which is besieged by the occupation by settlement and unleashes its settlers To seize Palestinian real estate and homes.
Khater indicated that the occupation is planning to establish 900 settlement units in the area, which will lead to the seizure of 2000 dunums of the lands of Wadi Al-Joz and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and to complete the encirclement of the Old City with settlement, as the occupation began implementing plans since the beginning of the year to establish 17 thousand settlement units in Jerusalem.
Director of the Maps Department at the Society for Arab Studies in Occupied Jerusalem Khalil al-Tafakji explained that the occupation seized more than 80 Palestinian properties and homes in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem and intensified the demolition operations in addition to seizing large areas of land within the walls of the Old City, pointing out that the occupation is planning to seize Commercial stores and real estate in Bab al-Sahira, Bab al-Amud and Bab al-Asbat, and the Old City is now surrounded by outposts as part of the Judaization process to change the features of civilization and Judaize Jerusalem in a comprehensive manner.
Al-Tafakji pointed out that the occupation is racing against time in judaizing the landmarks of the Old City and establishing thousands of settlement units in it, as well as constructing settlers bypass roads and intensifying excavation work, especially in the Wadi Hilweh area to the south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, stressing that the occupation wants to impose a new settlement reality in Jerusalem based on changing the image. Urbanization and its emptying of the Palestinian presence, in implementation of the colonial annexation plan, with American cover and support.
In turn, the director of the Wadi Hilweh Center, Jawad Siyam, said that the occupation resides in the Old City of Jerusalem many times the number of settlement units announced, as it surrounded the town with outposts, and this is accompanied by intensive demolitions of Palestinian homes and properties, noting that the process of Judaizing the Old City includes three stages, the first of which is digging a network of tunnels. Under Palestinian homes, cracks and collapses in them, as hundreds of homes are liable to collapse, the second phase is the demolition of homes, hundreds of them have been demolished by the occupation, and most of Silwan’s homes, the Bustan neighborhood and Sheikh Jarrah have been placed on the demolition list, and the third phase is to build thousands of settlement units, separate neighborhoods from each other, and implement a series of Judaization plans to change the features of Jerusalem Civilization and falsification of its history.
The Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights stated in a report that the occupation has intensified the demolition operations in the Old City of Jerusalem and plans to demolish 88 homes in the neighborhoods of Silwan and Al Bustan. This coincides with the isolation of Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Abu Dis, Al Eizariya, Anata, Hazmah, Al Zaeem and Al Sawahrah Al Sharqiya, passing through Sheikh Saad area and Shuafat camp, which are all exposed A fierce settlement attack represented in seizing lands, preventing Palestinians from building and demolishing their homes.
The report pointed out that as a result of settlement and Judaization, only 14 percent of the area of Jerusalem remains for the Palestinians, and the occupation threatens to demolish homes and establishments in it, in addition to the occupation’s closing of 250 shops and commercial establishments in the Old City alone as part of the restrictions imposed on Palestinians who continue to stand fast and confront the plans of the occupation.
Head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority Walid Assaf explained that the Wadi Al-Jouz industrial zone employs thousands of Palestinian workers, and the occupation over the past years has demolished and closed hundreds of commercial and industrial establishments in it, as it previously included about 500 facilities of which only 200 remained, and the occupation declared its intention to demolish them to establish its settlement scheme Colonialism, ignoring international resolutions, especially Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016, which affirms the illegality of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and demands that they stop immediately.
For her part, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hanan Ashrawi, affirmed that the occupation practices and its criminal approach based on ethnic cleansing and forced displacement and emptying the city of its original inhabitants by continuing the demolition of homes and attacks on holy sites would not have continued without the unlimited American support for settlement and Judaization in flagrant defiance of international law and decisions. International legitimacy stresses that the plots being hatched against the Palestinian people and their just cause will not pass and will fail, just as all occupation attempts to uproot the Palestinian presence have failed.
The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Al-Barghouti, indicated that the plan to demolish 200 industrial and commercial establishments in Wadi Al-Joz aims to seize what remains of Jerusalem's lands, destroy the historical and Arab cultural façade of it, link settlements in the vicinity of Jerusalem and besiege the Old City with settlements, indicating that the occupation is through the demolition of the industrial zone In Wadi al-Joz, he wants to fully control the eastern entrance to the city of Jerusalem within the continuous and intense Judaization circles of the Old City with the aim of displacing the Palestinians, but these plans will not pass in light of the resistance and steadfastness of the Palestinians, especially the Jerusalemites.
Muhammad Abu Shabab
