Jerusalem: A century of hostile occupation

Jerusalem, which was occupied by the British one century ago this week, is experiencing one of its most difficult times. The occupation of Jerusalem, which has been ongoing since Dec. 9, 1917, has gained a new dimension after U.S. President Donald Trump declared the city the capital of Israel. Since last Wednesday, when Trump made the scandalous announcement, Israeli forces have martyred four Palestinians and wounded 1,487 others, as well as taking 150 Palestinians into custody in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Nearly 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank cannot enter Jerusalem because of the walls constructed around them by Israel. Two million Palestinians living under a blockade on the Gaza Strip are also banned from entering Jerusalem. About 5 million Palestinian refugees scattered around the globe are unable to return to their homeland Jerusalem. There are just above 300,000 Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem.

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. Jerusalem had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire since 1517, but was captured by the British in 1917. General Sir Edmund Allenby took Jerusalem through the Jaffa gate on Dec. 11. In General Allenby’s proclamation of martial law in Jerusalem, he declared “The defeat has resulted in the occupation of your city by my forces. I therefore here and now proclaim it to be under Martial Law, under which form of administration it will remain so long as military considerations make it necessary.”

West Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from Palestine. This is referred to as the Nakba, or catastrophe, when Israel was officially founded. Eastern Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967, although this annexation has never been recognized internationally. A UN vote in December 2016 declared that Palestinian territories were under hostile occupation.

Jewish settlement projects aimed at strengthening Israel’s control of East Jerusalem are deemed illegal under international law. Despite this, there are over 200,000 Jewish settlers in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem.

Israel’s settlements have repeatedly been described as having “no legal validity, constituting a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders,” as stated by a UN Security Council Meeting in December 2016.

Israeli army forces launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Monday. The attacks were launched using an Israeli tank and warplanes which targeted Hamas posts in the southern Gaza Strip.

The attack came as tensions mount and Palestinians are targeted by Israeli army troops amid ongoing protests against last week’s decision by the U.S. to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Confrontations of varying intensity have been reported in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron (al-Khalil), and in the town of Sair as well as Jerusalem. Palestinian demonstrations have remained underway in the occupied territories for the last four days to protest Washington's policy shift on Jerusalem.

Trump’s Jerusalem decision has sparked global outrage and protests, and on Monday the EU strongly rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s calls to recognize the holy city as the capital of Israel.