[News] Israeli Forces Turn East Jerusalem Neighborhood into Prison

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israeli Forces Turn East Jerusalem Neighborhood into Prison

author Monday May 04, 2015 17:24author by IMEMC News & Agencies
*http://www.imemc.org/article/71459*

    Israeli forces have sealed the main entrance to the East Jerusalem
    neighborhood of al-Zaayyem, "locking up more than 6,000 Palestinians
    in a large prison," local residents say.

An iron gate set up by Israeli forces has been completely closed for ten 
days, head of al-Zaayyem local council Naim Sub Labantold Ma'an News 
Agency, on Monday.

Israeli forces first set up the gate near a military checkpoint at the 
main entrance to al-Zaayyem in late March, citing security concerns.

The soldiers have controlled the gate since then, Sub Laban said, 
opening and closing it whenever they want to restrict the movement of 
schoolchildren, businessmen and others who need to go in and out every day.

Sub Laban added that Israeli forces had opened the gate for several 
hours on Sunday afternoon, and again for two hours on Monday morning, 
but that otherwise the gate had been closed for ten days.

When the gate is closed, residents of the neighborhood, who have 
described the closure as "collective punishment" are forced to use an 
alternative route of dirt roads about five kilometers long.

When the gate was first set up, Israeli authorities claimed it would 
remain open all the time "except when there is a dangerous security 
situation," Sub Laban said.

Abu Mahmoud Shweiki, an ice cream distributor who sells to stores in 
al-Zaayyem, said that he now has to drive his truck over a long dirt 
road every day in order to load and unload his goods.

Schoolchildren also said that they have been forced to walk a long route 
along dirt roads in order to reach their schools every day.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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