Palestinians mark Jerusalem Day in Gaza

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS

Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip took to the streets on Friday to commemorate International Jerusalem Day. The annual event takes place on the last Friday of Ramadan. Marchers carried pictures and models of the two main mosques in the occupied city, Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock.

Several politicians delivered speeches at the end rally and stressed the importance of making Jerusalem a central issue and working to liberate the city from Israeli occupation.

The chair of the Jerusalem Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmed Abu-Halabiyya, called for Israeli aggression against the Holy City to be disseminated more widely. “We need to make the world aware of what Israel is doing in Jerusalem with its violations of human, civil and religious rights there,” he told the crowd.

Salem Salama of the Committee of Palestinian Religious Scholars insisted that Israeli efforts to change the Islamic and Arabic identity of the occupied city would not succeed. “Jerusalem will remain a part of our beliefs,” he said. Although the Arab Spring countries are wrapped up in their own problems at the moment, added Salama, they have to keep one eye on the situation in Jerusalem.

MEMO photographer: Mohammed Asad

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