An international conference on Al-Quds, last Sunday, highlighted criminal operations perpetrated by the Zionists, concerning Israel’s annexation policy in Jerusalem.
The conference organised under the theme ‘International Conference for the Defence of Occupied Jerusalem’, assembled 350 representatives from 70 different countries.
Participants included Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa, Arab foreign ministers, heads of international and regional organisations and bodies, federations advocating human rights, clerics, as well as intellectuals, legal, political and historical figures.
Majed Al Zeer, General Director of the PRC (Palestine Return Centre), just returned from the conference said: ‘Israel’s policy in Al-Quds is a clear violation of international law, numerous resolutions of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, concerning the rights of the Palestinian people.’
The situation in Jerusalem has been a growing concern for the international community since its occupation in 1967.
Israel has adopted a series of measures designed to force Palestinians out of the city, including systematic home demolition and settlement construction.
Most concerning of all is its determination to Judaise the city by removing Arab, Christian and Islamic characteristics of the city with the ultimate goal of severing East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.
The Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality are working hand in hand to alter the city’s demographic balance.
They assist extremist Israeli organisations for the takeover of Palestinian homes and implant further Jewish settlements.
The Israeli script for the ultimate colonisation and occupation of Palestine has not changed.
The first wave of expulsion in 1948 was followed by many more, all intended for the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinians from their land.
Israel’s policy in Palestine never ceased to be inflammatory.
In East Jerusalem, it has reached a new level of depravity that should be a concern for the region and the international community.
Zeer also encouraged the international community to act saying: ‘Al Quds is vitally important, not just for the 350 million Arabs but the 1.5 billion Muslims around the world.
‘Not to mention that without Al Quds any prospective resolution committed to by the international community will be totally shattered.
‘It is therefore imperative for Britain, Europe and the international community to stop Israel’s immoral, illegal, inflammatory and extremely dangerous policy in the holy place’.
l Meanwhile, nearly 2,200 children and 500 adults took to the streets of Gaza today to participate in a marathon that aims to raise money for a United Nations-organised sporting event for Palestinian children.
Professional athletes as well as amateur runners from the Middle East and around the world ran along the Gaza Strip, which is 42 kilometres long, exactly the length of an official marathon.
The main aim of the race, which was organised by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), was to raise funds for the UNRWA 2012 Summer Games.
The Games allow some 250,000 Gaza children ‘to have fun and express themselves freely and safely, an experience that is rare for children growing up in the territory under an Israeli blockade’.
13-year-old Sahia Al-Hawajery said: ‘We ran three kilometres. We were so happy to run, and of course we helped each other out, and we are tired now.
‘We ran and we are tired because our Palestinian people are poor and need money, and we are working for the Summer Games to have fun and enjoy our rights, like the rest of the children in the world.’
Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA spokesperson, said the agency needs $9.9 million to cover the costs of the Summer Games.
Hasna said: ‘Today is a big day for the residents of the Gaza Strip, it is a message to the world that Gaza is like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Cairo, and it is possible to organise such a big and huge marathon here.’
He added: ‘This is an important message, that here, in this place, despite the blockade, there is insistence on life, and insistence on playing. It is a message to the world that we grow hope here in Gaza.’
This was the second UNRWA Gaza Marathon, and this year the event drew the participation of two Olympic competitors: Nader Al Masri, running the full marathon, and Bahaa al-Farra, a 400-metre 2012 London Olympic athlete, running the 10-kilometre race.
l Defence for Children International has documented the arrest by Israeli soldiers of 16-year-old Mahmoud Omar Faqeh from Qattana village northwest of Jerusalem.
Defence for Children International has revealed that the Israelis were in direct violation of many international standards for the treatment of children during arrests.
As the teen explained to Defence for Children International, Mahmoud was going with his friends to a place near the separation Wall in Beit Sourek village when they were attacked by Israeli soldiers.
Mahmoud said: ‘One of the Israeli soldiers fired a rubber bullet at my leg, and then another Israeli soldier caught me and two of my friends.
‘As soon as they arrested me, they forced me to get down and face the ground. They handcuffed me with a plastic tie.
‘They started to severely beat me on my body and my legs with their feet and the black sticks that they were holding.
‘I was screaming from the pain they caused me. Though I was shouting “my legs are broken”, they continued to beat me for almost 15 minutes.
‘After that, the soldiers took me off the ground and arrested me.
‘Because I couldn’t walk on my legs, the soldiers started to beat me again and asked me to stand up, but I couldn’t from the pain.
‘They lifted me and forced me to walk, so I walked a little bit and I fell.
‘Then two soldiers held me by my shoulders and dragged me until we reached the Apartheid Wall.
‘They put me on Ma’bad Street near the wall, and they started to beat me again until a military vehicle came and took me to the nearest military checkpoints.
‘I think it was Beit Eksa checkpoint, but, because the soldiers blindfolded my eyes with the woollen hat I was wearing, I couldn’t see anything.’
The teenager was detained at the checkpoint for almost half an hour and was forced to sit blindfolded in the rain on the cement, with his hands cuffed behind his back suffering from leg pain.
Mahmoud said: ‘The soldiers transferred me from Beit Aksa checkpoint to a place, I caught its name during the investigation, it was Atarot Military Prison.
‘They made me sit on the cement and I couldn’t raise my head, because whenever I did a soldier yelled at me, and that was very painful.’
At midnight, the soldiers interrogated the teen and he was asked about his reasons for walking near the Apartheid Wall.
The interrogator said that the teen was throwing stones at the soldiers and distracted them from doing their jobs, but Mahmoud denied it.
When Mahmoud told the interrogator that his legs were hurt, he was told that the soldiers would take him to a doctor who would wrap some gauze around his legs and then he would be taken to prison.
After one hour, the interrogation ended and Mahmoud was transferred to Ofer Military Prison near Ramallah.
There, the doctor refused to touch him or give him treatment, so the soldiers took him to Hadassa Hospital in Jerusalem, after they covered his eyes with an unused plastic garbage bag.
‘When I reached Ofer, the soldiers dragged me to the prison’s clinic, and I was suffering from the pain, I asked them to stop, but one of the soldiers said in Arabic, “Shut up or we will put you with the dogs.”’
The teen reached Hadassa Hospital the morning following his arrest.
Since his arrest, Mahmoud hadn’t eaten or used the bathroom.
Mahmoud said: ‘In the hospital, two soldiers from the Border Guard accompanied me; they were dragging me.
‘I was asked to take some tests, and then a doctor came to check on my legs and asked for an X-ray.
‘It showed that I have two fractures in my right leg, and the doctors wrapped it in the cast and put me on one of the beds in the hospital.
‘Whenever I tried to sleep, one of the soldiers beat me and the other one said that I am going to die here, or I am going to the prison, in addition to other curses from both of them.’
The next day in the hospital, the doctors put a cast on his left leg, because they discovered that it, too, was broken. At that point, Mahmoud ate his first meal and used the bathroom, with the help of a nurse.
The following afternoon, Mahmoud was transferred to Ofer prison accompanied by three soldiers, including one female soldier, who beat Mahmoud before summoning him to the prison’s administration.
They also forced him to walk for 30 metres, though the soldiers were aware of the doctors’ recommendations that Mahmoud not walk for at least 12 hours until the cast dries.
Mahmoud said: ‘One of the soldiers beat me on my chest with his vest, and it was strong, while the female soldier pulled my hair and forced me to walk on my legs.’
Mahmoud stayed at Ashbal section in Ofer Prison for 16 days where he was tortured by the Israeli soldiers.
During the 16 days, he appeared five times before the court, moving in a wheelchair.
At the fifth session, he was released on a 1,000 NIS bond until the date of his next court summons.
