JERUSALEM, Thursday, March 10, 2022 (WAFA) – Palestinians today observed a general strike in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabir in protest on imminent home demolitions, according to WAFA correspondent.

The strike saw the closure of local shops and stores in the neighborhood, where the Israeli occupation authorities want to demolish 800 Palestinian houses.

Ibrahim Bisher, owner of one of the houses slated for demolition, said that the strike was held to voice rejection of Israel’s policy of systematic demolitions of Palestinian houses and forced expulsion in contract to colonial settlement expansion.

Tariq Owaisat, a member of the Follow-up Committee in Jabal Al-Mukaber, said  the municipality wants to destroy the homes to make way for a commercial centre and 500 new settler colonial units.

Owaisat pointed out that this "dangerous" scheme will deprive the Palestinian residents of any urban expansion in Jabal Al-Mukaber in the future, which will force young people to leave the holy city to look for homes. He insisted that the residents in the neighbourhood will stand up to this plan to be implemented at their expense. The Palestinians in Jerusalem, he said, are steadfast and will not allow a repeat the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Naksa.

The Jerusalemite activist warned that the Israeli plan threatens hundreds of Palestinian families, and that the occupation municipality in Jerusalem is acting like a "gangster under the protection of the Israeli government."

K.F.