Israel cleansing al-Quds of Palestinian population: Rights activists
Human rights activists have warned that Tel Aviv is involved in an “ethnic cleansing” campaign against the generations-long Palestinian residents of Jerusalem al-Quds in order to get rid of their demographic dominance in the Israeli-occupied city.
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Citing rights groups and researchers, The Middle East eye news and analysis portal reported on Thursday that Tel Aviv was gradually moving Palestinians out of Jerusalem al-Quds’ Israeli-majority areas by annexing the city’s settlements and turning Palestinian areas into “a no man’s land.”
The regime is advancing the so-called “Greater Jerusalem” aimed at “legalizing” the annexation of the settlements, which house around 150,000 Israelis, to appropriate the land on which it has built the structures.
“The pace of physical and demographic changes in the city has accelerated dramatically since Israel began building a steel and concrete barrier through the city’s Palestinian neighborhoods more than decade ago,” the sources noted.
Aviv Tartasky, a field researcher with Ir Amim, an Israeli group advocating fair treatment for Palestinians in Jerusalem al-Quds, described the developments in the occupied city as “ethnic cleansing, without guns.”
“Israel hopes to get rid of a third of Jerusalem’s Palestinian population through legislative moves alone,” he added. A picture taken on October 25, 2017 shows a general view of construction work in Ramat Shlomo, a settlement in East Jerusalem al-Quds. (By AFP)
Another bill will deny more than 100,000 Palestinians on the “wrong” side of the barrier rights in the city.
At the same time, it is employing harsh policies to force the Palestinians inside the wall to move out. Those include late-night arrests, home demolitions, and a denial of basic services.
Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of their future state, while Israel lays claim to its entirety as its “eternal capital.”
Israel’s settlement construction has accelerated since the January inauguration of US President Donald Trump. He has also signaled that he would move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to al-Quds as a means of endorsing the regime’s claim to the city.
