JERUSALEM, October 6, 2014 – (WAFA) – Israeli police announced Monday that there would be extensive road closures in Jerusalem ahead of Formula 1 Racing.

Police announced that many streets and roads will be closed throughout Jerusalem, including occupied East Jerusalem, on Monday from 11:00-20:00 and Tuesday from 12:00 to 20:00 in anticipation of the ‘Jerusalem Formula Peace Road Show’, which reportedly starts outside the Old City’s walls at 3:30 p.m.

Among the roads that would be closed are ‘King David Street’, Jerusalem-Hebron Road and Bethlehem Street. Major traffic disruptions are expected in the city as police has deployed heavily along the route that would be followed by the circuit.  

Israeli West Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat reportedly introduced the event as promoting inter-religious peace and understanding.

“The pictures of the Formula 1 cars racing through our streets sent an international message that Jerusalem is an open, welcoming city in which sport and entertainment are enjoyed by residents and tourists alike,” Barkat reportedly said.

Barkat’s remarks however can not overshadow the fact that Israel maintains a segregation and apartheid regime in the city, where the indigenous Palestinians, Muslims and Christians alike, are ghettoized.

The race is ultimately an attempt to add credibility to Israel’s apartheid regime that comes within the framework of the Judaization plans that are meant to promote the city as the undivided and eternal capital of Israel.   

Since 1967 Jerusalem has been illegally declared by Israel as its ‘eternal and unified’ capital city. The city has been the most prominent place for destructive Israeli military, colonial, cultural, and religiously targeted activities. The Palestinian capital city became a target for ‘Judaization’, isolation, colonization and ethnic cleansing with the old city of Jerusalem which contains the Muslim and Christian holy sites.

The successive Israeli Governments have launched targeted attacks at Jerusalem city that aimed at completely controlling the city and its holy sites, and expelling as many Palestinians as possible of those living in it in order to reach the Jewish majority within the city at maximum through the construction of Israeli settlements in and around the city and the confiscation of Palestinian lands and designating them for further settlement expansion .

For more information about the Israeli occupation policies in the city, take a look at the Jerusalem Old City Profile published by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem.

K.F./T.R.