JERUSALEM, January 23, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli police Tuesday imposed strict movement and security restrictions  in the Old City area in Jerusalem, which included the closure of many roads leading to Palestinian neighborhoods, as US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Jerusalem.

Israeli police closed the entrances leading to Wadi Rababa and Wadi Hilweh neighborhood districts outside the Old City area in Jerusalem, denying entry and exit of Palestinians to the two areas.

Since Tuesday morning, shops, schools and business in Jerusalem and the West Bank observed a general strike to protest Pence’s visit to Jerusalem, which only came a month following US President Donald Trump’s widely rejected decision to recognize the city as Israel’s capital.

Pence, a staunch pro-Israel who pushed for recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and a strong advocate of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, was visiting Al-Buraq Wall, one of the walls of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.

In a statement earlier today, both nationalist and Islamic forces in Jerusalem described Pence’s visit to Al-Buraq as “desecration of Jerusalem and the holy Wall, the original part of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

M.N./M.H.