New Israel steps violate status of Jerusalem

NETANYAHU HOLDS CABINET MEETING AT HOLY SITE; CABLE CAR PROJECT APPROVED

I srael has stepped up its systematic provocations in Occupied Jerusalem in recent days just one week ahead of the 50th anniversary of the holy city’s occupation by Israeli forces.

At a provocative cabinet meeting held inside tunnels Israel dug under Al Haram Al Sharif, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday plans to install a cable car to Occupied Jerusalem’s Old City.

The plan would see a former railway station in the Jewish-only west Jerusalem linked by cable car to the Old City in east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

It would stop near the Al Buraq Wall which is adjacent to Al Haram Al Sharif, which Israel also annexed and renamed the ‘Western Wall’. Current estimates say the cable car will begin operating in 2021.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the project sought to “normalise occupation of Palestinian land”.

The anniversary comes against the backdrop of growing violence in the Palestinian territories in response to an uptick in Jewish raids on Al Haram Al Sharif.

Israel has been imposing restrictions on Palestinians from accessing the Muslim site to pave the way for more colonists to raid the holy site and perform their Jewish and Talmudic rituals.

Under a status quo agreement, Jews may visit Al Haram Al Sharif, but may not perform religious rituals there.

In addition to the cable car, Israel also announced on Sunday that it would exclude some 140,000 Palestinians living in the Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Shuafat and Kofr Aqab from the city’s municipal boundaries.

The announcement confirms long-held Palestinian suspicions of a systematic Israeli plan to ensure a Jewish majority in the city.

Israel captured and annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, along with the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.

Since then Israel has been forcibly displacing Palestinians from the city they claim as their ‘undivided capital’.

Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.