Israel approves plan to construct extra buildings in Buraq plaza

Palestinian Information Center

December 6, 2009

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Quds Press reported that the Israeli committee for planning and building in occupied Jerusalem approved last week a plan to build extra buildings in Al-Buraq plaza.

Quds press quoted the Israeli Yerushalayim newspaper as saying that the new plan is aimed to establish a police station, educational center, offices for Al-Buraq wall heritage fund and a building for public service.

The news agency added that four parties objected to this plan including Jerusalemite citizens living in the vicinity and a group for the protection of nature, which confirmed that the building in the open area in Al-Buraq plaza would shrink the area and affect the principle of maintaining the plaza.

For its part, the civic coalition for defending the Palestinians’ rights in Jerusalem said that Israel broke the pledge it made in 1994 on the protection of Palestinian institutions and interests in east Jerusalem as well as the international covenant on civil and political rights issued by the UN General Assembly in 1966.

In a press release, the coalition added that Israel trampled on all its pledges and violated the Palestinians’ freedom of worship and their right to have access to holy places, adding that Israel went too far in changing the landmarks of Jerusalem above and below the ground.

It called for providing immediate protection for Jerusalemite civilians against Israel’s ongoing aggression and curbing it from carrying out excavations especially under and near the Aqsa Mosque and demolishing buildings and Arab and Islamic historical places in the holy city.

The coalition also called on Israel to stop the policy of Judaization, displacement and ethnic cleansing it pursues in Jerusalem as well as all its arbitrary and illegal measures.

In the same context, the Islamic-Christian committee for the defense of holy places in Jerusalem said Saturday that Israel stepped up its attacks on the holy city in an unprecedented way and waged an all-out war on everything non-Jewish with the aim of imposing a fait accompli in the city.

The committee added that Israel, for the first time, revealed its true intentions towards Jerusalem when it rejected any European attempt to declare the eastern part of Jerusalem the capital city of Palestinians and warned the European Union of taking such a step.

The committee condemned this Israeli position as blatant and impudent, adding that it killed the peace process.