DDHK News - A secret European Union report criticizing Israel's policy of Judaizing Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem). The EU emphasized that the holy city of Muslims must be the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
"Israel has left a more isolated Palestinian environment," said the document prepared by the 25 EU Consul Generals who are ambassador-level representatives to the Palestinian Authority.
Israel is actively weakening the Palestinian presence in the city of Jerusalem. The Jewish state occupied the holy city of Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community or UN resolutions.
Since then, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force Palestinians out of the city of Al-Quds, including the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes and construction of Jewish settlements.
Israeli bulldozers last Sunday destroyed a hotel in Al-Quds for the site of a new Jewish settlement in the Muslim holy city.
The European document, which was completed last month and sent to the European Union's main foreign policy body, the Political and Security Committee in Brussels, proposes sending observers to monitor any Israeli destruction in the city.
"The council must attend court hearings dealing with demolition or evictions and guarantee EU intervention when Palestinians are arrested or intimidated by the Israeli government for peaceful cultural, social, or political activities in East Jerusalem."
Al-Quds is the site of Al-Haram Al-Sharif which includes the third holiest site of Muslims (Al-Aqsa) and is the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
European documents say, Israel's actions in Al-Quds are aimed at weakening the existence of Palestine in the holy city. Israeli settlement building in the city makes the two-state solution even more difficult.
"If this trend does not stop, the prospect of East Jerusalem as the future capital of the Palestinian state will become even more impossible and unworkable," said the document, as published on OnIslam.net (10/1).
Israel has built more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank covering more than 40 percent of the occupied territory. The international community considers all settlement on occupied land illegal.
The European report suggested Al-Quds be treated as the capital of a future Palestinian state. (Mel / OnIslam). *
