Israel wants to demolish 800 Palestinian homes in occupied Jerusalem

The Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem wants to demolish 800 Palestinian homes in the Jabal Al-Mukaber neighbourhood, Al-Resalah reported on Sunday. According to Tariq Owaisat of the Follow-up Committee in Jabal Al-Mukaber, the municipality wants to destroy the homes to make way for a commercial centre and 500 housing units for Jews.

Owaisat pointed out that this “dangerous” scheme will deprive the Palestinian residents of any urban expansion in Jabal Al-Mukaber in the future, which will force young people to leave the holy city to look for homes. He insisted that the residents in the neighbourhood will stand up to this plan to be implemented at their expense. The Palestinians in Jerusalem, he said, are steadfast and will not allow a repeat the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Naksa.

The Jerusalemite activist warned that the Israeli plan threatens hundreds of Palestinian families, and that the occupation municipality in Jerusalem is acting like a “gangster under the protection of the Israeli government.”

The citizens of Jabal Al-Mukaber in occupied Jerusalem performed Friday prayers in the town’s sports stadium as part of their escalating action in rejection of the plan. During his sermon, the Grand Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, said that, “The land of Jabal Al-Mukaber is entirely Arab and Palestinian owned, and all Arabs and Muslims must protect it.”

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