Israel to relocate 324,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem

After U.S. President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, the Zionist administration started to prepare to remove 324,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem. There are 305,000 Muslims living in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu's administration, which is preparing to evict non-Jewish civilians from Jerusalem, plans to build 14,000 settlement units in Jerusalem, half of which will be constructed in occupied East Jerusalem.

“In response to the historic decision of President Trump, I decided that new settlements will be constructed in Jerusalem," Yoav Galant, Israeli housing and construction minister said on Friday. Currently, roughly half a million Jewish settlers reside in the West Bank, with another 220,000 in East Jerusalem, both of which have remained under Israeli occupation since 1967. Israel is trying to raise the number of West Bank settlers to one million. In the next three years, the Zionist administration will have a wide-ranging eviction policy to ensure that all non-Jewish civilians are removed from Jerusalem.

The first divisive move following Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1980 was issuing identity cards. Palestinian researcher Muin Naim says that the relocation process to be initiated by the Netanyahu administration will be based on these identity cards. Naim added that over 300,000 Jerusalem residents would be forcefully evicted from the West Bank and Ramallah.

Naim said that Daesh terrorists brought from Iraq and Syria to Sinai would play a part of this project. He added that Mohammed Dahlan, known for his links to Israel, would support the project by using Daesh and Fatah. Naim stated that soon, houses and workplaces belonging to Jews in Jerusalem could be on the receiving end of attacks.

Saud al-Qahtani, the press advisor of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, said in his written statement that Trump should not be battered for his Jerusalem move. It is reported that the declaration belongs to Salman, and al-Qahtani only signed the statement in consideration of reactions that would arise from Saudi Arabia and the Muslim world.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem on June 5, 1967, before unilaterally annexing the entire city as its "undivided and eternal capital" in 1980. At the time, the UN Security Council condemned the move in the "strongest terms", calling on member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from Jerusalem in line with UNSC Resolution 478 (1980). The same resolution explicitly described East Jerusalem as being “under occupation”. Until now, countries that have relations with Israel maintain diplomatic missions in the city of Tel Aviv.

On Wednesday, despite widespread opposition across the Middle East, the U.S. president announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The dramatic shift in U.S. policy has sparked demonstrations on Thursday in the occupied Palestinian territories, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq and in some other Muslim countries.

Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem -- now occupied by Israel -- might eventually serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

During his electoral campaign last year, Trump repeatedly promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and acknowledge Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital.

U.S. President Donald Trump promised the most powerful pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that the U.S. embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in March 2016 and then received a $20 million donation for his presidential campaign from Sheldon Adelson. The Adelson’s are leading donors to pro-Israel groups.

A mere 10 days prior to taking office, Trump hosted Sheldon Adelson for a private meeting. After the meeting, Adelson told Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, that the embassy would be moved to Jerusalem.