Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of any future Palestinian state.
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The Israeli government points out that only about 12,000 Jews visit the site each year, as against four million Muslims.
Palestinian opponents of the wall’s construction say that it was a veiled land-grab of West Bank territory undertaken on the pretext of security. Roughly-one third of the city’s Palestinian population, about 100,000 people, live outside the barrier.
Palestinian protesters, in the West Bank village of Sair, hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers in the Beit Einun junction east of town of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank on October 26, 2015.
Under terms of a 1994 peace treaty, Jordan is recognised as custodian of the Al-Aqsa compound but Israel controls access. Stripping them of residency would have an effect on their capacity to work & travel inside Israel, and stop them from access to health care & social services. The very prospect has unnerved Palestinians in the city.
Over the last decade or so, since then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the site in 2000, the Waqf says Israel has been slowly chipping away at the rules, with increasing numbers of religious Jews visiting the area and many of them surreptitiously praying. But Palestinians who live on their ancestral land in Jerusalem are given a different kind of identity card, which ensures that they have far fewer rights than Jewish residents of the city.
The military wouldn’t embellish on the condition of the Palestinian.
Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment.
Netanyahu first raised the idea of revoking Arab East Jerusalemites’ residency in a security cabinet meeting two weeks ago, according to a Sunday report from Channel 2 television news.
The Israeli official said no decisions have been made. “There needs to be a discussion about it”. Fourth, that by improving the Palestinian Authority economy and rebuilding its institutions, Abbas would buy enough time to achieve Palestinian statehood.
During his Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he would attempt to revoke the man’s citizenship.
But Israeli military officials have noted that security co-operation with the Palestinian Authority is continuing. “All of this will only lead to more deterioration in the city”, Mr Husseini said.
The ministry drew attention to the fact a 17-year-old Palestinian high school student had been fatally wounded by Israeli soldiers on October 25 in Hebron. Amman has been the scene of an intensive flurry of diplomatic activity over the past few days with His Majesty King Abdullah receiving visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday to discuss ending the recent wave of violence in the West Bank, in general, and Jerusalem in particular. Palestinians have accused Israel of trying to expand the Jewish presence at the Temple Mount.
However, the Jordanian-run trust which administers the site, known as the Waqf, complained that when its officials showed up to install the cameras, they were blocked by Israeli police, accusing the Jewish state of “interference”.
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Netanyahu has welcomed the plan, saying the cameras will prove that Israel is not doing anything wrong at the site. “The cameras will be installed according to the arrangements to be determined between the parties”.
