Occupied Jerusalem - SANA
Continuous demolitions carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in the town of Jabal al-Mukabber, southeast of occupied Jerusalem, where the occupation bulldozers turned a number of houses and facilities into piles of rubble, rendering entire families homeless and cutting off their source of livelihood, while anxiety prevails over other families after the occupation authorities announced their intention The demolition of 14 houses in the town, in addition to dozens of houses in separate areas of Jerusalem, in an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian presence in it.
Ratib Matar, a resident of Jabal al-Mukabber, referred in a statement to SANA reporter to the tragedy of his family after the occupation demolished their two-storey house last Sunday. To get out of our house by force and then demolish it before our eyes, the house that included us, in which our memories and dreams turned into rubble in an instant, and we became homeless.”
In order to confront the war of demolition and forced displacement, the people of the town ignited a continuous uprising against the occupation, and their methods of struggle varied from a comprehensive strike that paralyzed all life facilities to confronting around the clock the incursions of the occupation forces, burning tires, pouring oils on the entrances to the town, and placing waste containers on the roads to prevent the entry of the occupation vehicles and bulldozers. In a picture that brought back to mind the stones uprising that broke out in 1987.
A spokesman for the people of Silwan Fakhri Abu Diab confirmed that the occupation, since the beginning of this year, has intensified demolitions in Jerusalem and demolished about 30 homes, in addition to announcing a plan to demolish 14 homes in Jabal Al-Mukabber and has already begun to implement it, indicating that this plan is part of a huge scheme. To demolish 800 homes in the town and establish 500 settlement units in their place.
Abu Diab pointed out that the occupation is also planning to demolish dozens of shops and industrial facilities in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in Jerusalem as part of a systematic plan to seize lands and expand settlements, noting that the occupation has demolished 1,506 homes and facilities in Jerusalem since its occupation in 1967 and placed 22,345 homes on the demolition list, which is The equivalent of a third of the houses in the city of Jerusalem, in addition to depriving its people of urban expansion and forcing them to leave the city to obtain housing.
For his part, the coordinator of the Popular Committees to Resist the Wall and Settlements, Salah Al-Khawaja, indicated that the occupation is escalating demolitions in Jerusalem to draw the features of a new phase entitled ethnic cleansing and the uprooting of the Palestinian presence from the city, which threatens a catastrophe if the international community does not intervene to stop the hysteria of the occupation, which exploits silence and international inaction to commit The crimes of forced displacement and the establishment of the apartheid regime.
Al-Khawaja indicated that the Palestinians announced a program of struggle to confront the demolitions in Jerusalem. In the village of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar, an open sit-in was announced, which began yesterday, and a comprehensive strike was organized in the town of Jabal Al-Mukaber, and popular activities took place in all neighborhoods of Jerusalem, condemning the demolitions and emphasizing that the Palestinian people are clinging to their land and will not allow To the occupation to pass its Judaization plans, stressing the importance of building a unified Palestinian national strategy in order to confront the occupation's attempts to displace the Palestinians.
The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Al-Barghouti, confirmed that Jabal Al-Mukaber and the courage of the Palestinians in confronting the occupation in it brings to mind the valor of the first Intifada and establishes a new stage of struggle in which the Palestinians assert that they will continue the struggle to restore all their rights, and they are rooted in their land and will not allow the occupation to uproot them from it, explaining that the occupation’s attacks on The Palestinians, their homes and properties in Jabal Mukaber and the rest of the towns and neighborhoods of Jerusalem and the West Bank are a crime of ethnic cleansing that requires urgent action from the international community to stop it.
Muhammad Abu Shabab
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