RAMALLAH, August 28, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli measures aimed at changing the character of occupied East Jerusalem were highlighted on the front page of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies on Tuesday.

Al-Quds, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida said the Israeli authorities approved a plan pushed forward by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expand Al-Buraq Wall plaza, right below Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Jews as the Western or Wailing Wall.

They reported warnings by Muslim officials against such steps considering that the plaza is the property of the Muslim Endowment (Waqf) department and that changes mean infringement on Muslim rights.

They also touched on another Israeli measure in East Jerusalem and said Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood foiled an attempt by the Israeli government’s custodian of absentee property to take over seven dunums of their land by claiming it had a court order to take the land, which it did not.

The papers reported as well on attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and their property in the occupied West Bank, whether that was against villagers in the north of the West Bank or by expanding illegal settlements in the Jordan Valley.

Al-Quds said in a report by its Washington correspondent that the administration of US President Donald Trump is proceeding with plans to dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).

It also said in another report that Egypt asked to postpone the talks on truce and calm with Israel in order to give the Palestinian reconciliation talks a chance.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida made the meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and a Chilean delegation its main top front page story with a picture. The other papers reported on this as well.

The paper quoted Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah saying that the Palestinians will not succumb to American blackmail and the Trump administration is an accessory to the occupation.

Al-Ayyam reported on the Israeli campaign against the Arab members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, because they want to challenge at the United Nations the recently adopted racist Israeli law, the Nation-State Basic Law. The campaign, according to al-Quds, included calls to strip them of their citizenship and exiling them to Gaza.

The papers also reported on a Palestinian couple - a man and his wife - who were shot dead in their apartment in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank, two days ago. The couple, survived by two children, were originally from the Hebron area in the south of the West Bank.

M.K.