Jerusalem MPs threatened with deportation from their home city by Israel have accused the Palestinian Authority and what they call “Arab and international complicity” responsible for the increasing Judaisation of occupied East Jerusalem. The MPs’ statement was prompted by the decision of the Zionist state to construct several settlement units in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. They consider the Authority run by Mahmoud Abbas to be guilty of “negligence” over the Holy City when sitting at the negotiating table with their Israeli counterparts. The recent decision by the Israelis to expel the Palestinian residents of a number of houses to make way for the illegal settlements was denounced by the MPs.
The three members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who are seeking refuge at the headquarters of the International Red Cross in Jerusalem, said that the occupation authority’s latest settlement-related decision could not have been made without what is in effect the agreement of the Palestinian leadership to give up Jerusalem by considering that it is negotiable. Such negotiations are, say the MPs, “futile”, albeit part of what the Al Jazeera documents show to be the massive complicity of the Palestinian Authority and the international community in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem which international law still recognises as “occupied”. It is illegal under such law for the occupying power to make material changes to the land under occupation.
The MPs claimed that the settlement process is only going ahead because Palestinian negotiators have more or less waived their rights to the occupied territory. The position of the Arab and Muslim world is weak on these issues and does not challenge the Israelis.
In the same context, Jerusalem MP Ahmed Attoun condemned Zionist Rabbi Dov Lior who has called for buildings to be constructed within the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa. This, said Mr. Attoun, is part of the “Zionist attack on Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem which has been ongoing for more than forty years since the Israelis occupied the city in 1967”. Attoun condemned “the silence of the Arabs and their shameful neglect of the city” as well as the aggressive policies of the Israeli occupation authority.