Ramallah: Palestinians have rebuffed an order by Israeli occupation authorities to stop construction on their land following a Palestinian attack on Israelis in the city.
Meir Turgeman, the regime’s Deputy Mayor in occupied Jerusalem and head of the Planning and Building Committee, announced the cancellation of all construction projects in neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem that are still occupied by the indigenous Palestinian population.
The announcement came on the heels of Sunday’s attack in which Palestinian Musbah Abu Subaih, 39, of the Silwan neighbourhood, shot and killed two Israelis and wounded eight.
“We have reached the moment of truth. Let’s put all the cards on the table: the people in eastern Jerusalem want to kill us and destroy us. Why should we give them yet another opportunity?” Turgeman said in an interview with Radio Jerusalem. “We lived under the false hopes that these people would change their animal-like behaviour if we help them. But it turns out that nothing helps ... We need to take responsibility here. And I’m going to set an example,” he warned. “I removed all construction plans in eastern Jerusalem from the agenda [of the planning and building committee]. I cancelled all the plans. They say stick and carrot, but there are no more carrots, only sticks,” he said.
Jerusalemites are accepting the threats as part of Israel’s psychological warfare against them. “This is something that Jerusalemites have been used to,” said Fakhri Abu Diyab, who heads the local committee in defence of occupied Jerusalem. “These empty threats which are in place on the ground are meant to intimidate and scare Jerusalemites and reassure the Israeli society that their occupation forces remain in control.”
Abu Diyab noted that construction has been strictly forbidden in the Palestinian neighbourhoods of the holy city for decades. “The Israeli bank of pressure and threats has dried up, and nothing more can be done against Jerusalemites,” he told Gulf News. “Israel’s regime is seeking to add more force to the already excessive force used against Jerusalemites.”
Abu Diyab explained that occupied East Jerusalem, with its population of more than 300,000 native Palestinians, is in desperate need of between 5,500 and 6,000 new housing units annually to tackle the natural growth. However, in that area and in areas close to the Israeli segregation barrier, only 10 to 20 additions to already existing homes are approved annually by the occupation municipality in Jerusalem. Since the year 2000, not a single addition approval has been secured in sensitive areas around Al Haram Al Sharif, including in Silwan, the entire Old Town, Al Tur, the Mount of Olives, Wadi Al Joz or Shaikh Jarrah.
