US plans for a “New Jerusalem” are a form of “aggression”, member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Hatem Abdel-Qader said yesterday.
Quds Press reported the official saying that the “aggression” is helped by some Arab countries, along with the “procrastination” of the Palestinian leadership, which gives Israel time to “demarcate a new de facto policy on the ground”.
The Fatah official, who was previously the Palestinian Authority minister of Jerusalem, stressed that the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem “has been expanding its sovereignty”, noting this is the reason why it is building barriers which separate the Arab neighbourhoods from the centre of the city.
Abdel-Qader said that this proves the Israeli occupation is playing with the city’s geography in order to enable Israel to control the heart of Jerusalem and offer the surrounding neighbouring areas as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
He noted that Israel is speaking about Abu Dis, Shuafat and Kafr Aqab as parts of Jerusalem, however, they are parts of the occupied West Bank and they were included to Jerusalem after 1967.
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