The Israeli occupation authorities escalated the perpetration of human rights violations in Jerusalem during December 2021, as an Israeli attempt to impose new incidents in the Damascus Gate area leading to the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque emerged. The Jerusalemites responded to these measures with daily confrontations that left dozens of injuries and detainees.
In the monthly report monitoring the Israeli attacks in Jerusalem, Europeans for al-Quds Association monitored the Israeli army’s perpetration of 755 violations varied between 14 types of human rights violations.
The majority of these violations are complex, and at the forefront of these violations were incursions and raids with 27.5%, followed by arrests with 26.2%.
The report documented 41 shooting incidents and direct assault by the Israeli occupation forces in the neighborhoods of occupied Jerusalem, which led to the kill of the Palestinian youth, Muhammad Shawkat Salima, 25, from the city of Salfit in the northern West Bank, after the occupation forces shot him in the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Moreover, 68 civilians were wounded with rubber bullets and sound bombs, in addition to dozens of cases of suffocation due to tear gas and bruises as a result of abuse and beatings.
The Europeans for al-Quds Association team documented during this month that the occupation forces carried out 208 raids into towns and neighborhoods of Jerusalem, during which they arrested 198 citizens, including women and children. It also summoned 33 others.
The report monitored the implementation of 30 demolitions by the occupation forces and the distribution of notices, which resulted in the destruction of 14 homes, most of them by self-demolition, and 12 commercial establishments and agricultural lands, as well as eviction and demolition decisions for many homes and facilities.
The report confirmed that the occupation authorities sought to impose a demographic change in the city of Jerusalem, and to employ all its governmental, political and security arms for this purpose. It also incites the settlers and their settlement associations to control the largest possible number of properties in the city.
Six decisions, including revealing plans to establish new settlement outposts and neighborhoods, were also monitored.
According to the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the report documented the participation of 3,792 settlers in storming the mosque and performing Talmudic rituals. This was repeated over 22 days, two periods per day.
Europeans for al-Quds Association documented 13 attacks carried out by settlers, which were the seizure of a house and land, attacks on citizens and vehicles, writing racist slogans and burning property.
The Israeli occupation police also continued to implement the policy of deportation from Al-Aqsa Mosque or the city of Jerusalem. During August, it issued 21 deportation decisions, some of which targeted children.
The Israeli occupation forces continued their attacks on public freedoms, and obstructed the work of press crews in Jerusalem. During this month, the report monitored 4 cases of violations of freedoms, represented by the removal of a sit-in tent, the injury of a journalist, the attack on press crews, and the prevention of businessmen’s activities.
Europeans for al-Quds warned of the dangerous repercussions of the escalatory Israeli policy in Jerusalem, and called on the international community to move seriously and get out of the conspiracy of silence and pressure on Israel to stop its attacks, undo the implementation of forced displacement plans and put an end to the massive violations of human rights.
It renewed the call on the European Union countries to stand up to their responsibilities and force the occupying power to respect international law and UN resolutions, including the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians, and to stop the practice of state terrorism against Jerusalemite civilians and to enable them to perform their religious rites in mosques and churches.
Head of Europeans for al-Quds warned of the danger of the Israeli escalation and the policy of destruction of Palestinian homes and attempts of mass displacement in Jerusalem.
