Occupied Jerusalem- The year 2023 did not pass smoothly for Jerusalem, its holy sites, and its residents. With its start, Itamar Ben Gvir assumed the security portfolio in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. As soon as he assumed this position, the people of Jerusalem paid and are still paying the price for his arbitrary decisions and extremist statements.
Days after assuming this portfolio, Ben Gvir carried out a storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in a tour that lasted 13 minutes, after which he declared, “With all respect to Jordan, Israel is an independent state… I ascended the Temple Mount and I will continue to ascend, and no state has guardianship over Israel.”
Ben Gvir’s provocations did not stop there. Rather, he ordered that fireworks in Jerusalem be considered explosive materials, under the pretext that they are being used illegally against police officers.
After this measure, it was noted that Jerusalemites were arrested and tried and indictments were filed against them because they used fireworks during confrontations in which the police used excessive violence on direct orders from Ben Gvir, which inflamed the square of this holy city throughout the year 2023.
In numbers
According to data from the Jerusalem Governorate – the highest official Palestinian representation of the Holy City – there were 41 martyrs from the beginning of this year until the end of last November, and 2,612 Jerusalemites were arrested, including 308 children and 128 women.
Also according to the governorate, the Israeli courts in Jerusalem issued 143 administrative detention orders during the same period, and 724 deportation orders, including 577 from Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was stormed by the end of last November by 51,994 extremist men and women.
308 Jerusalemites, including children, were subjected to house arrest, and 292 demolition operations were carried out in the Jerusalem Governorate, including 73 facilities whose owners were forced to forcibly demolish them with their own hands to avoid the heavy fines imposed on them if the occupation bulldozers carried out the demolition operations.
Also within the framework of the demolition, the occupation authorities carried out 5 punitive demolitions of the homes of the families of martyrs and prisoners who carried out operations that led to the death of settlers, the first of which was the home of the young man Uday al-Tamimi in the Shuafat camp, and the last of the young man Khairy Alqam in the Al-Shiyah neighborhood in Jerusalem.
Punitive demolitions fall within the framework of collective punishment practiced in Jerusalem, through which the occupation authorities seek to deter Jerusalemites and dissuade them from any actions that affect “Israeli sovereignty” over the city.
Also within the framework of collective punishment, the occupation authorities launched several campaigns during the year against liberated Jerusalemite prisoners and their families, which included seizing their bank accounts, raiding dozens of homes, and confiscating gold jewelry, cars, and other possessions.
During these campaigns, the occupation authorities demanded that Jerusalemite families pay huge sums of money in exchange for lifting the hold on bank accounts, in implementation of the decision of Defense Minister Yoav Galant to impose financial sanctions on Jerusalemite prisoners and their families under the pretext of receiving allocations from the Palestinian Authority.
Settlement projects
Regarding the settlement file, the Israeli District Planning and Construction Committee approved several settlement projects, including a new route for the light rail in Jerusalem, the expansion of the Ramot settlement by adding 440 new housing units, and the establishment of the “National Park,” which will be built on an area of 600 dunums of land in the towns of Al-Issawiya and Al-Tur, and is called “Har Slopes.” “Hatzofim.”
The plan for the “Wadi Majli” park was also approved, which will be built on an area of 720 dunums between the towns of Beit Hanina and Shuafat (north of the city) for the benefit of the “Pisgat Zeev” settlement.
In addition to this, there are other projects currently being implemented on the ground, such as the American Street, the Tunnel Street, and others.
Settlement did not stop at the approval of new projects. Rather, it extended this year to include the seizure of two Jerusalem homes in the Old City belonging to the Sub Laban and Idris families. With their evacuation, the number of settlement outposts in the Old City increased to 79 outposts, according to settlement affairs researcher Ahmed Sub Laban.
Israelization and dissolution
Regarding the issue of dissolving the Palestinian national identity in Jerusalem and the ongoing attempts at Israelization, last August the Israeli government approved the new five-year plan called “Reducing the Social and Economic Gaps and Economic Development of East Jerusalem, 2024-2028.”
The plan aims to link Jerusalemites to the Israeli social, economic and legal system, and the resulting attempt to control them and deter them from national action, by restricting them from further association with various Israeli institutions.
Despite the attempts at assimilation that are being made through the policy of soft penetration into Jerusalemites, no voice has risen above the iron fist policy in Jerusalem since the 7th of last October, as the occupation authorities turned the city of Jerusalem into a military barracks, tightened their grip on the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and attacked Everyone tried to reach them.
With the outbreak of the war, the occupation forces prevented Jerusalemites from sitting on the stands of Damascus Gate, and the arbitrary violations escalated as city residents searched them in a humiliating manner and searched their phones in search of pictures and video clips related to the war in order to punish them for them.
Settlers’ attacks and provocations against Jerusalemites, their property, and vehicles also escalated, especially in neighborhoods where settlement outposts have penetrated.
Targeting education
The attack on Palestinian education and the curriculum in Jerusalem continued during the year 2023, and crews from the occupation municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education carried out raids on some schools, during which students’ bags were searched for Palestinian curriculum books, while Al-Aqsa school students were prevented from entering the gates of the Blessed Mosque, claiming that their bags contained Palestinian books. .
In his answer to the question: What awaits Jerusalem in 2024 in light of the violations that the city was subjected to during 2023, the director of the Jerusalem Center for Future Studies, Ahmed Rafiq Awad, answered by saying that the future of Jerusalem is linked to the overall regional and global political settlements and efforts to provide a solution for the Palestinians.
Until the solution is presented, Israel will work to further Judaize and Israelize, strangle, expel, and restrict Jerusalemites, but it will certainly not be able to cut it off or exclude it from the conflict because Jerusalem is the heart and address of the conflict.
