Occupied Jerusalem- Despite its closure within the borders of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, which has been ongoing for 23 years, Israeli occupation intelligence today stormed the Arab Studies Association, in the Dahiyat al-Barid neighborhood, located outside the municipal borders, but inside the separation wall on the Jerusalem side, claiming that the association “practices political work and is affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization.” “.
During the storming of the headquarters, Israeli intelligence officers investigated the employees and confiscated many administrative and financial files and computers after tampering with all the contents and creating a state of complete chaos in the place.
During the inspection process, the association’s director, Sanaa Hasna, was summoned for interrogation at the Al-Maskobiyya Investigation Center, west of Jerusalem. This is not the first time that the association’s headquarters has been stormed and those in charge of it have been arrested and investigated.
The Arab Studies Association was established in 1980 with the aim of reorganizing the ranks of the masses, building and strengthening national institutions, and providing social, cultural, educational, health and educational services to Jerusalemites.
In 1988, the occupation authorities closed the association and its affiliated institutions and departments for the first time, and the closure continued until 1991. Then the association resumed its activities until 2001, when it was closed by occupation force again.
Effects of vandalism after the occupation stormed and searched the headquarters of the Arab Studies Association in the Bareed suburb in the town of Beit Hanina, north of occupied Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/165a5lHXmr
– Al-Qastal News (@AlQastalps) December 18, 2024
The Arab Studies Association resulted in several centers and departments, including the Documentation and Information Center, the Maps and Geographic Information Systems Department, and the Land Research Center.
After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the occupation expanded its persecution of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, especially those that are considered a front for the Palestinian Authority or the Liberation Organization. Then the persecutions took another turn after former US President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem the unified capital of Israel in 2017.
To compensate for this, the Palestinian Authority tried to maintain some symbols of symbolic presence in Jerusalem, the most prominent of which was the Orient House, which was closed along with the Arab Studies Association in 2001, and through a number of official institutions such as the Jerusalem Governorate, and later the Ministry of Jerusalem, the unity of Jerusalem in the Palestinian presidency, and the increase of Jerusalem institutions in The Liberation Organization, such as the National People’s Congress for Jerusalem and the Islamic Christian Organization for the Support of Jerusalem and the Holy Sites, are all institutions that have no headquarters within the municipal borders imposed by the occupation of Jerusalem.
The occupation not only expels these institutions outside the city limits, but also pursues their officials and restricts their movement to a minimum, including the city’s governor, Adnan Ghaith, who is subject to house arrest and prevented from entering the West Bank.