Tel Aviv slaps hefty fines on Jerusalemites

Regime police issuing fines for display of Quranic slogans at Palestinian shops

Israeli occupation police in occupied East Jerusalem have been imposing hefty fines on Palestinians, in a new move slammed as collective punishment.

According to Jawad Siyam, who heads the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre in the Jerusalem district of Silwan, these include both traffic and other types of fines.

“Hundreds of discriminatory traffic tickets have been issued to Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem, where parking lots should not have been erected in the first place,” said Siyam, referring specifically to the traffic fines. He noted that the Israeli colonists in the city are never issued similar tickets, even when their violations cause serious traffic jams and congestion.

Traffic fines vary between 500 and 5,000 shekels. “We have documented dozens of unfair traffic fines,” he told Gulf News. “Occupation police issue traffic fines... even during Friday prayer sermons and on Saturdays, on the Jewish sabbath.”

Siyam noted that the police step up issuance of fines when tensions arise in Al Haram Al Sharif, Islam’s third holiest site.

In addition to the traffic fines, Palestinian vehicles, commercial outlets and even houses with Islamic signs or verses of the Holy Quran on their entrances have also been targeted, according to Fakhri Abu Diyab, who heads the local committee in defence of occupied Jerusalem.

Akram Sghayer, from Al Wadi Street in the holy city, was fined 500 shekels and ordered to remove short verses of the Quran from the entrance to his shop. Mustafa Abu Zahra, from Al Musrarah, was ordered to pay a 1,000 shekel fine and remove the Islamic declaration of faith “No God but Allah” from the glass entrance to his shop.