OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC)– Tens of Israeli occupation police had surrounded the Ambassador hotel in the occupied city of Jerusalem and forcibly prevented Palestinian activists from organizing a conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the city.
Fifteen members of Palestinian human rights organizations were supposed to hold a meeting in the said hotel in commemoration of the anniversary; but orders from Israeli domestic security minister Avi Dichter were stern in blocking that meeting by force.
A poster was posted at the entrance of the hotel warning organizers of the conference of severe punishment if they defied the orders.
PA information minister Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi condemned the Israeli measure describing it as a violation of the freedom of expression.
He in this regard urged Palestinian people to defy the IOA orders and to organize massive demonstrations in commemoration of that “painful” anniversary calling on the international community to back the Palestinian people’s legitimate struggle for independence and freedom.
In the fifth of June 1967 the Hebrew state occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip after it usurped 78% of historical Palestine in 1948. It also occupied the Sinai desert from Egypt and the Syrian Golan Heights.
Meanwhile hundreds of Palestinian citizens in Nablus city held massive demonstrations and marched towards the infamous Hawwara roadblock in a clear sign of defiance to the Israeli occupation practices and brutal policies against the Palestinian people.
“Hundreds of IOF barriers across the West Bank and Gaza Strip have failed in breaking the Palestinian people’s determination as the Palestinian people were and still are ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of their country’s freedom and independence” said Ghassan Hamdan one of the demonstration’s organizers.
The IOF troops have inflicted severe economic destruction on Nablus which is considered the number one commercial city in Palestine due to the relentless military incursions and the systematic destruction of its commercial stores and shops. The city’s economic losses are estimated at 50 million dollars yearly.
At the final stage of the rally the demonstrators planted trees along the two sides of the road as an implicit pledge that they will remain adherent to their land despite the IOA measures against them.
