Israeli arrests in Occupied Jerusalem have never been a normal or fleeing event in the lives of Jerusalemite citizens or something that does not happen often. Rather it is a systematic and intentional policy pursued to drain them and create living economic and security faits accomplis that push them into moving away from their city.
According to Asra Media Office Israel’s arrest campaigns have become a daily occurrence in the holy city being utilized as a tool to pressure subjugate and terrorize the Jerusalemites and deter them from confronting its Judaization schemes.
Such tool has been used largely against the Jerusalemites during the current year especially in May and June when the Sheikh Jarrah residents were exposed to massive Israeli aggression aimed at expelling them from their homes.
During the first half of 2021 over 1300 Jerusalemite citizens including children were either detained or jailed.
However 525 of those Jerusalemite citizens were arrested during the third quarter of the current year and they comprised 41 percent of the Palestinians who were arrested across the occupied territories in that period.
Asra Media pointed out that a total of 1280 Palestinians were arrested in July August and September in Jerusalem and the West Bank including 130 Jerusalemite children constituting 80 percent of the Palestinian minors detained in total during these three months. The youngest of those kids were Mahmoud Abu Jum’ah and Mohamed Khuwais who were under age 11. In addition 21 Jerusalemite women and girls were among the detainees.
During the same period specifically in July the Israeli occupation forces kidnaped Jerusalemite lawmaker Mohamed Abu Tir 71 from his residence in the West Bank. He had been exiled 11 years ago by the Israeli authorities from his hometown in Jerusalem to the West Bank.
Police forces also kidnaped a number of women including teenagers and elderlies during that period from different areas of Jerusalem especially from Bab al-Amud Ras al-Amud the Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah.
Some of those women are Roaa Ruwaidi (aged 16) Aida Sedawi (59) Aya Abu Nab Suha Eid Nada Abbasi (teenager) Tala al-Ghoul (19) Asma Asi (29) and Ra’eda Sa’eid as well as Manar Qundus and her mother Wafaa Qundus.
In this regard Amjad Abu Asab head of the Family Committee of Jerusalemite Detainees expressed his belief that the Israeli police’s escalation of their aggressive practices and detention campaigns in Jerusalem is aimed at emptying the holy city of its indigenous people to pave the way for their efforts to control the Aqsa Mosque.
Abu Asab said that dozens of Jerusalemite citizens had been arrested and assaulted recently during violent police crackdowns in the Bab al-Amud area and its vicinity adding that about 23 of them including 16 kids were brutalized and rounded up by police forces as they were marking the Prophet’s Mawlid (birthday) occasion in the Old City.
He added that several Jerusalemite journalists and activists were also detained and assaulted in recent weeks by police forces as they were covering the events in Bab al-Amud.
He criticized the Red Cross and other international organizations for their passivity towards such Israeli practices and arbitrary detentions. “These organizations are completely absent from the Palestinian scene and suspiciously silent on such fierce Israeli aggression against our people.”
According to Asra Media the Israeli police also targeted during the current year several Islamic Awqaf employees and officials in the holy city with arrests and banishment orders most notably Sheikh Ekrima Sabri head of the Higher Islamic Council in Occupied Jerusalem — in an attempt to terrorize them and prevent them from encouraging their compatriots to resist Jewish settlers’ violations at the Aqsa Mosque and the Judaization activities taking place in the city.
Asra Media has called for necessarily strengthening the Jerusalemite citizens’ steadfastness in the face of Israel’s arbitrary detention campaigns and repressive measures and to support them financially psychologically socially and legally in their struggle for their city.
