RAMALLAH, January 11, 2017 (WAFA) – The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it is going to take the case of a Palestinian family from East Jerusalem to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague if Israel carries out punitive measures against it.
Israel said it is going to deport 13 members from the Qunbar family, which resides in Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, as a punishment after a member of the family, Fadi Qunbar, rammed his truck into Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem on Sunday killing four and injuring many others.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it is closely following up this matter and its implications and has raised the issue with other governments, related United Nations agencies and international forums, particularly the ICJ.
It said it urged them to intervene to prevent Israel from carrying out its threats and to guarantee safety for the Palestinian people, particularly the Qunbar family.
The Foreign Ministry said the decision made by Aryeh Deri, the Israeli minister of interior, is a “form of collective punishment against our Palestinian people.”
It said, “What the occupier (Israel) is doing is considered a crime and a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law, and part and parcel of Israel’s repressive measures against our people, particularly residents of Jerusalem, in order to terrorize them and make life difficult for them so that they would leave the city in a step that would serve the occupier’s schemes to create a demographic Jewish majority in the holy city.”
In addition to revoking residency rights of Qunbar family members, including Minwa Qunbar, Fadi’s mother, which means she will be stripped from all of her social security benefits, Israel intends to also demolish the Qunbar residence in Jabal al-Mukabber, as well as demolish neighboring homes under the pretext that they were built without a permit.
The Israeli government said it will take other collective punitive measures against the entire neighborhood, including intensifying tax raids and collection of municipal fees and restriction on movement and travel among other measures.
K.T./M.K.
