Jerusalem Chronology
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June 15 Jerusalem Jerusalem's mufti and the highest Muslim cleric in the city, Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, was called in for questioning at the Jerusalem district police Chronology headquarters about his alleged links with the Islamic movement within Israel. According to (June - September 2003) the Israeli police, the Islamic movement is suspected of transferring funds to Palestinian May 29 "terror" groups and Sabri is suspected of actively aiding the movement in money During Israeli celebrations marking "Jerusalem transfers. Sabri arrived at the police Day", the Israeli celebrations of its occupation headquarters with his two lawyers (Haaretz). of East Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the State of Israel would never relinquish the city. "As prime minister of the June 30 State of Israel, I am proud of the honor granted The Israeli government informed residents of to me to be the protector of the eternally unified Beit Iksa village northwest of Jerusalem that Jerusalem. I will respect and honor this duty 14,000 dunams of the village land would be without compromise," he said. Palestinian expropriated for the construction of a new shopkeepers in Jerusalem's Old closed their settlement. An Israeli civil administration stores early that day as right-wing Israelis officer and a Beit El official visited the village marched flamboyantly through the narrow city that day to tell villagers that their land was now streets guarded by soldiers and policemen (al- in the hands of the settlers and Israeli Ayyam, al-Quds). authorities. The new Israeli settlement is to be called "Alona" (al-Quds). June 4 The right-wing Israeli political party Moledet, July 2 which advocates the transfer of Palestinians, The Islamic Higher Commission and the Waqf established new offices in a Palestinian home Council issued a statement rebuking the Israeli just across from the United States Consulate in government for its decision to allow tourists East Jerusalem. On the same day that United and Jews to enter Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque States President George W. Bush was meeting compound. The statement condemned the in Aqaba, Jordan with new Palestinian Prime government's interference in the affairs of the Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime mosque. It also said that the political tensions Minister Ariel Sharon, Moledet activists that pushed the Waqf to halt tourist visits in entered the property, left empty as the Israeli September 2000 are still present, which means courts decided a dispute between the that it is not yet time to return to a situation of Palestinian owners and Israeli settlers that had normality (al-Quds). claimed the house several years ago. "They waited until the Aqaba Summit, and on that same exact date, for political reasons, they There are an estimated 6,000 drug users among decided to take over the property," tells Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and many Muhammad Dahleh, a lawyer representing the of these are concentrated in the Jerusalem-area Palestinian family that owns the building neighborhood of al-Ram, according to (Palestine Report). 67 October19.p65 67 09/08/24, 10:32 Õ Palestinian social workers. "The young people and Palestinian Armenian historian George of al-Ram are frustrated," says Majed Aloushi, Hintlian ("Essayi Garabedian & the Armenian head of the As Sadiq At Tayeb Society for the Workshops"). The photos shown at the Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts. "There is conference have since toured Jerusalem cultural continuous violence in the streets and an centers. unhealthy and unsafe environment." The absence of athletic clubs or cultural centers for young people leads to loitering in the streets July 15 and hanging out with the wrong crowd, he Eliayahu Gorel, an Israeli cabdriver abducted in believes (Palestine Report). the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina was rescued by an Israeli commando unit from the Ramallah-area town of Beituniya after being An extremist Jewish group calling itself the reported missing four days earlier. Security "Lions of Jerusalem" distributed postcards to minister Mohammed Dahlan said on 13 July Israelis in West Jerusalem requesting that Palestinian security forces were searching information about Palestinian homes that might for Gorel, but added that Israel could not hold be bought, occupied or demolished and any the Palestinians responsible for his information about Arabs living in disappearance as Israel still controls security in predominately Jewish neighborhoods in the West Bank (al-Ayyam). Jerusalem. Knesset member Azmi Bishara called the distribution of these cards "a criminal act," and likened it to methods adopted by the July 20 Nazis against the Jews. "We are talking about a racist group and rats that are trying to impose Yabous held its 12th annual music festival over new realities by frightening the people," ten nights at the Tombs of the Kings. This commented Palestinian Legislative Council year's festival was called, "Songs of Freedom," member Hatem Abdel Qader, who played down and featured musicians and singers from the provocation. "I believe this is only a media countries that went through the trials of their ploy and a psychological war" (Palestine own revolutions, that were in turn reflected in Report). their music. The participants hailed from South Africa, Europe, and Latin America, as well as Palestine. Preceding Yabous festivals have July 3 emphasized Arabic music, jazz, religious music and theater. The Center for Jerusalem Studies held a conference, Capturing 19th Century Jerusalem in Photography, at the al-Quds University July 22 Campus (see conference review). Presenters at the conference included American scholar Ruth Israeli authorities at the Lod Ben Gurion Hummel ("Biblicizing Jerusalem."), the Airport denied entry to Palestinian-Austrian Jerusalem Quarterly File's own Issam Nassar, artist Marwan Abado, who was scheduled to ("Early Palestinian Photography Between Local perform with his group "Misk wa Anbar" at the and Western Influences"), French scholar Jean Songs of Freedom Festival in Jerusalem. Both Michel de Tarragon ("Photographic Workshop the Austrian Consulate and the United of the Ecole Biblique"), Palestinian historian Nations Development Fund intervened on Yusef al-Natsheh ("Historical and Architectural Abado's behalf, but the artist was ultimately Transformations in 19th Century Jerusalem"), denied entry and sent back to Austria. Abado, 68 October19.p65 68 09/08/24, 10:32 Õ who was born in Beirut, holds Austrian August 12 citizenship and had received an entry visa from A new plan was proposed by right-wing Israeli the Israeli Embassy in Vienna prior to his housing minister Efi Eitam to increase the size arrival (al-Quds). of loans by NIS100,000 (approximately $25,000) for Israelis who want to buy houses in settlements in East Jerusalem. Israelis who July 27 want to buy houses in the western part of the The right-wing Moledet Party submitted a draft city would not be eligible for this loan. Peace law to the Israeli Knesset explicitly requesting activist Uri Avnery said the scheme is proof the expulsion of over 200,000 Palestinians that the Israeli government does not accept the living in East Jerusalem. A party spokesperson roadmap, a United States plan to return to said it proposed that a referendum be conducted bilateral talks, and does not believe in two on "evacuating" Jerusalem's Arab residents. In states for two peoples (al-Hayat al-Jadida). response, the left-wing Meretz Party asked the Knesset to reject the draft law, saying it is a call for ethnic cleansing (al-Quds). August 18 A 73-year-old Palestinian woman from the Ramallah-area village of Qarawet Bani Zeid July 28 died after being barred from crossing a Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres Jerusalem checkpoint by Israeli soldiers. The proposed that the Old City of Jerusalem be woman, who suffered from heart problems, was placed under United Nations supervision, while made to wait in the sun for an hour and a half. the rest of the city is divided between Israel and She had reportedly told the soldiers that she had the future Palestinian state. In an interview with an appointment at a Jerusalem hospital, but was a Greek newspaper, Peres said the Old City still blocked from crossing into the city. The would be placed under the supervision of two Israeli military says that soldiers have orders to mayors - one Palestinian and one Israeli. He allow Palestinians needing medical care to pass also proposed that a joint Arab-Israeli police checkpoints for humanitarian reasons (al- force protect the Old City. Palestine Liberation Quds). Organization political department head Farouq al-Qaddoumi welcomed Peres' proposal, calling it a "change in the Israeli position" (al-Quds). August 19 At least 20 people were killed in Jerusalem when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb he August 3 was carrying in a packed bus in the ultra- Suleiman Abu Ghalia, 27, from al-Jeeb village orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Har Nov near near Ramallah, was shot and killed by Israeli East Jerusalem. Some 80 people were wounded soldiers on August 3 at the Qalandiya in the blast (News agencies). checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Israeli police claim Abu Ghalia failed to heed their orders to stop his car. Eyewitnesses say August 20 police opened fire after Abu Ghalia Despite warnings from Jerusalem's mufti and disembarked from the car (al-Quds). head of the Islamic higher council, Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, over 300 Jewish tourists were allowed by Israeli police to enter the al-Aqsa 69 October19.p65 69 09/08/24, 10:32 Õ Mosque compound on August 20 under heavy return. It will be shown in theaters inside Israel security guard. Sabri said that al-Aqsa is a and Jerusalem (Palestine Report). Muslim shrine and must be administered by Muslim authorities without interference from other parties. Sabri added that responsibility for September 1 any harm done to the sanctity of the site The wall that Israel is building to separate the resulting from such visits would fall to the eastern half of Jerusalem from the west will cut Israeli police and government (al-Quds).