Israelis destroying children’s play area and seven homes near Al Aqsa Mosque
By Maisa Abu Ghazaleh
Jerusalem, (Palestine News Network):
Muslim and Christian dignitaries held an emergency meeting in Jerusalem last night. The subject was demolition in the Old City’s Bab Hatta neighborhood that will leave seven families homeless and hundreds of children without a place to play. Gathered in the headquarters of the Burj Al Laqlaq Society, committee members agreed to operate another tent in order to entertain children in the Old City for starters.
They penned a statement asking for international assistance with this, and the larger issue at hand, that is the Israeli takeover of Jerusalem.
”We call on the entire world to stand against this attack that affects the rights of children to play, and for Palestinians to live dignified lives in their own homes on their own land.”
To demolish a place where children play contravenes the International Declaration of Human Rights, said the committee on Tuesday. “The demolition of the play tent and other facilities is another plan to strangle the citizens and push them to leave Jerusalem. The tent is the only outlet for the residents of the Old City.”
The Israeli administration also issued seven demolition orders to families in the same neighborhood indicating that their homes would be destroyed under the pretext they did not obtain permits from the Israelis. This is a neighborhood in which Israeli forces are expanding the settlement project. The statement accused the Israelis of “ignoring all international conventions and resolutions on Jerusalem and its legal status.”
It continued to read that the Israelis are destroying Palestinian Jerusalem “in order to implement the collective transfer of citizens and impose its sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem and the evacuation of its institutions, in addition to removing the face of Arab and Islamic civilization from the city.”
The Burj Al Laqlaq Society is located in the northeastern area of the Old City on eight dunams of land in the Bab Hatta neighborhood, which represents one-third of the population of the Muslim Quarter and is also the location of the northeastern entrance to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
