ISRAEL LEVELS EAST JERUSALEM LAND EARMARKED FOR TOURIST FACILITIES
Gaza City, 26 Rabiul Akhir 1435 / 26 February 2014 (MINA) – Israeli occupation caterpillers on Tuesday leveled a grab-threatened land in al-Tur Mountain area in the Zionist occupied East Jerusalem.
The Israeli authorities had handed the Abu Al-Hawa family a demolition notice to evacuate the 11-dunam land no later than Feb. 13th, a member of the family said to a local news website.
“Three months ago, the Israeli occupation carried out leveling and excavations for antiquities. During that time, a so-called Russian group came in to tell that they are the owners of the land and want to build a church on it,” he explained.
Though the family showed the documents proving the land has been their property for 80 years, the group fenced it and fixed a door at the entrance, he added ALRAY, Palestinian Media Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
A servant from the occupation municipality of Jerusalem came the land and gave the family a one-day notice to evacuate. He informed the family of the existence of a tourist facilities and road construction projects that would exhaust two thirds of the land, according the family member.
MP calls to counter Israel’s ‘sovereignty over AL Aqsa Mosque’ plans
Jerusalem Committee Rapporteur at Palestinian Parliament Ahmed abu Halbeyyah called the Arab countries to firmly counter Israel’s attempts to claim sovereignty over Al Aqsa Mosque.
Abu Halbeyyah explained to ALRAY that the Israeli occupation tries to legalize the division of Al Aqsa mosque and to found establish civil Jewish facilities to officially enable the Jewsih settlers and soldiers to break into it.
The occupation plans to make Al Aqsa mosque and the surrounding so-called Holy Basin pure Jewish property, ignoring the Jordanian guardianship over the holy site.
Israeli Knesset on Monday said it’s scheduled to hold a discussion on Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount on Tuesday, after it was dropped earlier this month due to widespread rage against the decision among Palestinians after Friday prayer.
Jordanian lawmakers were angered at Israeli plans to draft a law ending the Hashemite guardianship on Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem, which is a breach of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, official news agency Petra reported.
The Knesset’s proposal aims to legitimize recurring breakings into Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem and Palestine, The Lower House of Parliament’s Palestine Committee said on Feb. 16.
Occupation issues eviction and demolition orders
Israeli occupation authorities issued Sunday evening eviction and demolition orders to 40 Bedouin families in al-Ezariya in south-eastern occupied Jerusalem .
Popular Committee spokesman, Hani Halabiya, said that occupation forces accompanied by civil administration officers from “BeitEil”settlement stormed “AhfadYounis” neighborhood in eastern al-Ezariya. The forces issued eviction and demolition orders to the families that must leave their homes by March 3, the deadline of the orders.
Halabiya pointed out that estimated 350 individuals inhabit the area who live in 22 homes made of steel, wood and tin boards, as well as tents. The area includes a kindergarten and a primary school. Many foreign institutions and “UNRWA” distributed “barracks” to those families, area of each is 80 square meters, which are threatened with demolition, too.
Occupation is trying to displace those families from the area, after leaving it in 1948, to expand the nearby settlement of MaaleAdumim and build a bridge that links between the settlement and “AhfadYounis”. (T/E01/IR)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
