RAMALLAH, October 30, 2017 (WAFA) – Israeli plans to ensure an overwhelming Jewish majority in Jerusalem dominated the front page headlines in Palestinian Arabic dailies on Monday.
Al-Quds reported an Israeli minister unveiled a plan which would see Palestinian neighborhoods beyond the Israeli-built apartheid wall split off from Jerusalem city zone.
The dailies reported Washington has pressured the Israeli government to postpone a vote on the so-called “Greater Jerusalem Bill.”
The bill is reportedly intended to annex illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank to Israel’s self-declared municipal boundaries for Jerusalem set following the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in June 1967.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Ayyam spotlighted President Mahmoud Abbas’ statements during a meeting with a delegation of former Israeli lawmakers in Ramallah.
Abbas was reported stating peace was a strategic goal to all peoples of the region and reconciliation was a Palestinian national necessity.
Al-Quds said Israeli Jewish settlers have continued to steal the harvest of Palestinian olive trees across the West Bank.
It added Israeli forces have decided to completely seal a military checkpoint, located to the west of Tulkarem city in the northern West Bank.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam also reported Israeli teams took photos for residential buildings in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Issawiya, which is normally a prelude to demolishing them under the pretext of construction without permit.
According to al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida, Israeli forces and Jewish settlers physically attacked a British delegation that paid a solidarity visit to Hebron marking the infamous Balfour centennial.
Moreover, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida demanding that Britain apologize for the Balfour declaration that promised a Jewish state in historical Palestine ahead of its centennial anniversary on November 2.
He was reported demanding that Britain apologize for the “historical injustice” against the Palestinian people as a result of the declaration and not celebrate it.
Al-Ayyam reported thousands of Palestinians in Israel participated in a march commemorating the 61st anniversary of the 1956 Kafr Qasim massacre.
Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Sheikh Omar Kiswani was reported in al-Quds denying media reports that the Waqf department plans to dismiss Palestinian employees en masse.
K.F./M.K.
