Barghouti warns that Israel is exploiting regional events to push Judaisation of Jerusalem

A deputy in the Palestinian Legislative Council has warned that the Israeli occupation authority is exploiting international preoccupation with other events in the Middle East to implement its plans for the Judaisation of Jerusalem and the imposition of more “facts on the ground” in the occupied city. Mustafa Barghouti said that Israel’s announcement that its military colleges would be transferred from the Galilee district to occupied East Jerusalem “amounts to a declaration of war on the Palestinian people”. Israel plans to locate the colleges on more than 32,000 sq metres of occupied land. Plans to build 120 settlement units in the north of the Holy City as well as nineteen synagogues in the settlement of Har Homa have also been announced.

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Mr. Barghouti, who is also the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said it is essential to address the “settlement surge” launched by the Israeli occupation authority. He called for popular resistance along with demands to the UN for sanctions and a boycott against Israel. He also stressed that the time had come to end the internal division in the Palestinian community and restore national unity in an effort to confront the “imminent dangers” to the Palestinians and their national rights.