Audio Link After TextWelcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, March 23, 2016.
The Israeli Municipality approves settlement project in Jerusalem, meanwhile troops attack homes in Gaza. These stories, and more, coming up stay tuned.
The Israeli “Regional Planning and Construction Council” approved, on Wednesday, the so-called “Kedem – City of David” colonialist project that would be undertaken at the main entrances of the Wadi Hilweh Palestinian neighborhood, in Silwan town, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center, in Silwan (Silwanic), said that Palestinians from Wadi Hilweh attended the session, but had to withdraw after being constantly interrupted whenever they testified about the devastating outcome of such a project occurring on their lands. The residents also complained that they were denied the right to Arabic interpretation during the council meeting.
The “Kedem” project aims at the illegal annexation of large areas of lands in Wadi Hilweh — lands that were used for farming before Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967.
In 2003, the Elad colonialist organization managed to gain control over the lands, and started planning before actually digging in al-Magharba Square, in addition to destroying Ottoman, Byzantine and Roman sites, and left just a few of them as an “archeological proof of the second temple.”
In related news, a senior UN rights official said that the continued development of illegal Israeli settlements is the root cause of a broad spectrum of human rights abuses across the occupied Palestinian territories.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid al-Hussein made the remarks in a statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), on Tuesday. He noted that settlements only prolong the occupation and undermine the future of Palestinians.
In other news, Israeli soldiers kidnaped, on Wednesday at dawn, at least nine Palestinians, in different parts of the occupied West Bank, during extensive military invasions and searches of homes, and property. The army also carried out a limited invasion into northern Gaza.
Palestinian sources reported invasions, homes searches and kidnappings in the southern West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron in addition to Jerusalem and Ramallah cities, moreover invasions were also reported in the northern West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Jenin.
Meanwhile in Gaza, several armored military vehicles, including tanks, carried out a limited invasion into Palestinian lands, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and fired live rounds at nearby residents homes causing damage but no injuries.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday, March 23, 2016, news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. From more news and updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.
