Secretary General of the Islamic-Christian Hanna Issa called for the support of the steadfastness of Jerusalemites in Jerusalem as a result of arbitrary actions committed against them by the ongoing occupation policies of plundering their lands and their displacement, aiming eventually to settlement and Judaization and full control over the holy city, and to represent in the future, “the eternal capital of Israel” against the will of the Palestinian owners.

    Issa pointed in his statement that the occupation follows the Judaization of urban and land confiscation policy (absentee’s land confiscation and expropriation of land for military and security purposes). It included the confiscation of land in East Jerusalem and prevent the expansion of Palestinian neighborhoods and large-scale conversion them into green areas where construction is prohibited. In addition to the presence of structural schemes aiming to increase the Jewish population through housing development, not to mention the purchase of land by the National Fund, which “Himnuta” is the responsible institution for the procurement process.

    Issa appealed adoption of a single reference to a united Jerusalem and support Jerusalem’s institutions that are shut down, Whereas the occupation policy for the closure of the institutions in Jerusalem is aiming at depriving the people of Jerusalem of their right to social, economic and cultural services.

    He said that those policies are not isolated from the occupation policies practiced against Jerusalemites which aims as a whole to Judaize the city and emptied of its population within the closure of Jerusalem institutions, land confiscation and settlement building, house demolitions, confiscation of identity cards, closure of the city and isolate it from the rest of the nation parts through military checkpoints and the establishment of the apartheid wall.

    He called on the official Palestinian bodies to coordinate political according to a drawn plans and a political strategic vision, and work on the creation of the National Fund of Jerusalem, and the inclusion of Jerusalem permanently on the agenda of the Executive Committee’s agenda.

     He added :”The international community must put pressure on Israel to ensure the protection of Jerusalemites, and stop pursuing ethnic cleansing policy targeting Palestinian presence in Jerusalem, and that the international community should raise lawsuits in the International Court of Justice and the Commission on Human Rights at the United Nations to stop Israel’s implementation of its decision which violate custom and international law, and to demand cancellation of the citizenship and entry to “Israel”, because of its racial discrimination against the Palestinians, and to ensure the freedom of the Palestinians to come to Jerusalem and exit, and to reside and live there. “

      He stressed that since the 1967’s war, the occupation is applying measures unilaterally, thus violating that international rules and laws and thereby flouting all international resolutions issued from Security Council and the General Assembly and the various organizations of the UN and international bodies, all of which they consider the city of Jerusalem an integral part of the occupied Arab territories and that what Israel is doing in the city is contrary to the powers of the occupying state according to international rules and laws.

      Issa demanded to activate the role of the Directorate of Education as a reference for education in Jerusalem, and called for the purchase and rental of buildings for use as schools and training of teachers (through the Directorate)

     He also called on the international, Arab and local level for financial support to Jerusalemites in order to maintain their presence in the city and not resorting to immigration by the arbitrary measures of the occupation, including the difficulty of obtaining building permits, high prices and Arnona’s taxes, all of which burden the Maqdisi cleats in the holy city to defend his land.