Occupied Jerusalem-SANA
With the aim of encircling the Old City of occupied Jerusalem and imposing full control over it, the Israeli occupation authorities seized large areas of the town’s lands and its surroundings and handed them over to settlers in order to implement its plans to Judaize the Holy City in violation of UN resolutions that affirm that any measures taken by the occupation to change the legal and historical status of Jerusalem are null It is invalid and must be stopped.
Adviser to the Palestinian Presidency’s Office for Jerusalem Affairs Ahmad Al-Ruwaidi explained in a statement yesterday that the occupation seized endowment lands in various areas of the Old City and its surroundings, especially in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Umayyad palaces area, and near the neighborhoods of Wadi Hilweh and Al-Thawri in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa, with the aim of obliterating its landmarks and changing its historical identity, which confirms the fact The Arab, Islamic and Christian city, stressing that the Palestinians will continue to work with the international community to stop the occupation's flagrant violations of international covenants and United Nations resolutions.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community, led by the Security Council, to assume its responsibilities in ensuring the implementation of United Nations resolutions, indicating that the occupation is escalating the seizure of Palestinian lands and properties in Jerusalem, especially in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa in an attempt to strike the foundations of the historical, demographic and legal Palestinian presence in the city and to Judaize it in flagrant violation of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy.
For its part, the Higher Presidential Committee for the Follow-up of Churches Affairs in Palestine indicated that the occupation seized large areas in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, as happened recently in the area surrounding Al-Aqsa, where the lands are owned by the Palestinian Waqf, and in the Bab Al-Khalil area, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Square and Bab Hatta neighborhood, which It is owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, stressing that the Palestinians are “Muslims and Christians” who are steadfast in their capital, Jerusalem, and the crimes of the occupation will not deter them from defending their city, heritage and history.
In a statement to SANA reporter, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, confirmed that the occupation’s seizure of the properties and real estate of the Orthodox Church is a crime aimed at weakening and marginalizing the Christian presence in Jerusalem, pointing out that the Orthodox real estate, especially in the Bab al-Khalil area, forms part of Christian history and heritage in addition to being The entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and to the patriarchs, churches and sanctuaries in Old Jerusalem.
Bishop Hanna pointed out that the occupation’s seizure of Islamic and Christian endowment properties and their handing over to settlers falls within the framework of a racist occupation scheme to seize the sanctities and undermine the sacred character of the city, calling on all living and free consciences in the world to support the Palestinians in the battle to defend Jerusalem, its Arabism and national identity.
Bishop Hanna said: “The occupation wants to displace us from Jerusalem, and it will not be able to achieve this because the people of Jerusalem with all their components are clinging to their land and their city. The occupation’s conspiracies aimed at changing the fact that Jerusalem is Arab, the occupation will come to an end no matter how long it takes.”
For his part, Director of the Department of Maps and Surveys in the Orient House in occupied Jerusalem, Khalil Al-Tafkaji, explained that the war of Judaization and the seizure of land and real estate in Jerusalem took place in several stages since the occupation of the city in 1967, the first of which was the destruction, razing, changing landmarks, and then establishing outposts in the heart of the Holy City, which included the seizure of Palestinian homes and real estate by force and displacing them at gunpoint until the current stage, which is the most dangerous, by seizing lands and real estate belonging to the Orthodox Church and Palestinian endowments and handing them over to settlers, pointing out that the occupation has already seized 35 percent of the Islamic and Christian endowment lands in Jerusalem.
Al-Tafakaji indicated that the occupation recently seized 40% of the endowment lands in the Old City of Jerusalem, warning that this matter will change the cultural, historical and geographical landscape of Jerusalem and will lead to the liquidation of the Palestinian presence in it.
Al-Tafkaji pointed out that the occupation is also planning to seize 2,500 dunums of endowment lands in the vicinity of the Old City, the Umayyad palaces area south of Al-Aqsa, Bab Al-Sahira and Bab Al-Khalil, and 350 dunums in the areas of the Mount of Olives and the French Hill overlooking Al-Aqsa, in addition to seizing large properties in strategic areas. In the town of Qalandia, north of Jerusalem.
In turn, the head of the People’s Committee to Resist Settlement Salah Al-Khawaja pointed out that the occupation began in 2004 by seizing the properties of the Orthodox Church, which is estimated at 22 percent of the real estate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Serious demographic imbalance in it, calling on the international community to take immediate action to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy and to stop the ethnic cleansing war waged by the occupation against the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Mohammed Abu Shabab
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