JERUSALEM, March 1, 2011 (WAFA) - Israeli forces prevented Tuesday the holding of two conferences of civil organizations in Jerusalem under the pretext of a ‘security breach’ and unauthorized permission to meet.

Israeli police and soldiers broke into the Capitol Hotel in Salah al-Din street in central Jerusalem and handed the hotel management a signed order by Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Israeli internal security minister,  prohibiting the Civil Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights conference from being held on “security grounds”.

The conference was supposed to evaluate the legal, planning and public experiences of civil organizations and the role of the national forces and Palestinian Authority in defending Silwan residents’ land and property. Silwan, a town south of the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, has recently been the target of escalating Israeli aggression to force its residents out, in order to take over its lands for Jewish settlements.

The coalition stated: “The Israeli forces that broke in took the IDs of the attendants and registered their numbers before giving the hotel management and the workshop holders the notification.”

In addition, Aharonovitch last night issued an order prohibiting a convention to announce the formation of the Palestinian Youth Union in Jerusalem, which had been scheduled in the afternoon in a sit-in tent in the Bustan neighborhood in Silwan.

Israeli forces threatened the owner of the house where the sit-in tent is located with measures against him if the convention is held, and handed him the prohibition order.

Y.Y./F.J.