Friday's in Occupied Jerusalem

The Israeli occupation has again stepped up its closure policies in East Jerusalem and around al-Aqsa mosque over recent weeks amidst ongoing colonisation projects and renewed calls from extremist Zionist groups to demolish the mosque in order to build the ‘Third Jewish Temple’.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza cannot reach Jerusalem without special travel permits that are issued by the Occupation. These restrictions usually apply to Palestinian men under 50 and women under 45. Such permits require specific reasons such as urgent hospital appointments to have any chance of success and are often still refused even in emergencies.

Recently, reports have stated that new rules have been imposed allowing only Palestinians with either Jerusalem ID or Israeli citizenship to enter the mosque although these restrictions are not yet being implemented every day.

On some recent days, nobody under the age of 45 has been allowed to enter al-Aqsa irrespective of ID status. This has been applied to Palestinians as well as Muslims with foreign passports. Palestinians have on regularly been forced to leave their ID cards at the entrance to the mosque before entering.

Checkpoints have been installed around the Old City to impose these policies. In some cases, people have been prevented from even entering the Old City area on Fridays without meeting various age limit and ID status restrictions (which already prevented most Palestinians from the West Bank and virtually all from Gaza from reaching Jerusalem). Such policies not only prevent religious freedoms but also strangle the Old City itself including its economy, identity and culture.

Palestinians continue to carry our regular protests against the occupation’s policies in East Jerusalem. The recent ‘Global March to Jerusalem’ was one such event which was tolerated by the Occupation. Conversely, a planned protest in solidarity with Palestinian hunger-striking prisoners was prevented when a wide blockade of the Old City and its surrounding area was enforced on May 30th with flying checkpoints preventing people even reaching the Old City walls. Following Friday prayers on Friday June 13th the Occupation forces were much less evident than on previous weeks before the prayers, yet as a demonstration broke out in solidarity with the hunger-strikers after the prayers occupation forces invaded the mosque compound shooting rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades towards worshippers as they attempted to leave. 28 people were injured during these attacks and 8 people were detained.

East Jerusalem is recognised by the international community as the capital of the future Palestinian state. Israel denies this fact and refers to Jerusalem as the ‘undivided and eternal capital of Israel’ as it continues to colonise as much of the city as possible whilst implementing policies which aim to deny Palestinian access to, as existence in, Jerusalem.

MEMO Photographer: Rich Wiles