Fatah: Situation in East Jerusalem 'has become unbearable'

“The situation in the holy city” of Jerusalem “has become unbearable”, a Fatah spokesperson said yesterday.

Speaking following the shooting of a Palestinian by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem early yesterday morning, international spokesperson of the Fatah movement Ziad Khalil Abu Ziad said: “There is no place left for condemnation while Israeli forces continue conducting field executions against Palestinian youths in Jerusalem.”

He accused Israel of aiming to “explode the situation” in Jerusalem, which has been the site of near constant tension since a wave of unrest began in October 2015, leaving some 259 Palestinians and 40 Israelis dead.

“Israel is attempting in all ways to provoke the emotions of the Palestinian people and push them towards a new confrontation,” Abu Ziad said, noting the controversial bill to ban the Muslim call to prayer, the “execution of Palestinian activist Basel Al-Araj,” and the killing of Ibrahim Matar yesterday.

Abu Ziad rejected Israel’s version of events surrounding Matar’s death – in which Israeli police claimed that “a terrorist” stabbed and injured two officers with knife – saying that there is no proof that Matar tried to attack Israeli police highlighting eyewitness accounts saying that the altercation between Matar and the police was “under control” and that Matar could have been detained without the use of lethal force.

Read: Palestinian Basel Al-Araj’s will

Abu Ziad implored the Palestinian youth in occupied East Jerusalem “to be careful as they are targets of Israeli police and the Israeli right-wing.”

He also demanded that the European Union intervene in order “to witness the Israeli detentions, killings, expelling of Palestinians and to understand the real initiator of any new confrontation that might spark between Palestinians and Israelis.”