Israeli authorities have not stopped their relentless efforts to impose full sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem, targeting any Palestinian activity that has a major role in defending the city and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and confronting the Israeli racist practices.

The Israeli authorities have recently stepped up their attacks against Jerusalem activists, whether by prosecution, arrest, deportation from the city, or travel bans, in addition to the delivery of some demolition orders to their homes.
 
According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, last November, the authorities issued 21 deportation orders against Jerusalemites and continued to restrict the activities of activists and their movement in the city, summoning a number of them for investigation, and preventing them from participating or carrying out any activity inside the city.

The head of the Families of Jerusalemite Prisoners Committee, Amjad Abu Asab, told Safa that "there is an accelerated Israeli incursion into the city of Jerusalem, targeting the Palestinian people, specifically the Jerusalemite activists, through prosecution, arrest, and deportation."

"Israel is fighting us and it wants, through its practices against Jerusalemites, to achieve its goals of imposing full control and sovereignty over Jerusalem," Abu Asab added.

Israel, said Abu Asab, is taking advantage of the period of the outgoing US President Donald Trump in order to bring major changes in the issue of Jerusalem, continuing its plan and its fierce attack against Jerusalemites, on all levels.

"The Israeli occupation seeks to silence the voice defending Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, as it fights any Palestinian activity in Jerusalem, whether political, cultural, or social," he added.

He affirmed that the Israeli targeting of Jerusalemites comes in light of European and Arab complicity, and an unprecedented normalization by some Arab countries, which increases the Israeli racism in the city.

For his part, lawyer Khaled Zabarqa told Safa that the Israeli authorities target every active Palestinian person who has a supportive role for the Jerusalem cause because the authorities want to fully settle this issue.

He added, "The occupation considers that all its goals will not be achieved unless its project in the city is resolved. Therefore, every Jerusalemite activist who has a societal, political, or academic role is subject to Israeli abuse and targeting."

Moreover, Zabarqa said that " the Israeli government is taking advantage of the official Arab regime's rush to normalization, and it imposes its control over Jerusalem and empties it of its residents, to turn it into a Jewish city."

He noted that Arab normalization and recent agreements with Israel, and the recognition by some Arab countries of the Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, all pose a major threat to the city and its residents.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalemite activist Fakhri Abu Diab added to Safa that "the occupation is fighting us as Jerusalemites in order to push us to leave the city, as it targets activists who expose its crimes and illegal and immoral violations against the city and its residents."

Abu Diab pointed out that "Jerusalemite activists are always being targeted with the aim of frightening and fighting them by all means, silencing the voice defending Jerusalem, and blocking the truth from to the world."

Source : Safa