
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the United Nation Security Council on Monday to uphold its responsibilities vis-a-vis international law and protect occupied East Jerusalem from the latest Israeli attempts to “Judaize” the city.
During the meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu notably unveiled a 200 million-shekel ($56 million) plan to build a 1,400-meter long cable car linking western Jerusalem to the Western Wall in the Old City by 2021,
Israeli news outlet Ynet reported on Monday.
Such a project, which Netanyahu said would fall under the purview of the Israeli Tourism Ministry, would in effect limit tourists’ exposure to Palestinian-majority areas of East Jerusalem, and further use the industry as what critics have called a
“tool” to enforce the perception of Jerusalem as a Jewish city.
Meanwhile,
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the cabinet had also approved a plan to financially incentivize Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem to switch to the Israeli school curriculum during the same meeting.
According to the ministry, such projects threaten the Arab and Islamic heritage of the city, while aiming to marginalize Palestinian Jerusalemites.
The ministry went on to condemn the school curriculum plan pushed forward by Israel’s far-right Minister of Education Naftali Bennett, saying that it aimed to impose the Israeli narrative on the younger Palestinian generation at the detriment of their Palestinian history and understanding of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Such measures by Israeli authorities in Jerusalem, the Palestinian ministry said, undermine the chances of achieving a two-state solution along 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Monday that “such arbitrary measures would harm efforts to revive the peace process and would lead to further tensions,” official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Abu Rudeineh went on to “demand that the US administration not allow Israel to proceed with these dangerous steps."
The Foreign Ministry meanwhile reiterated that the inaction of the international community over Israeli violations of international law encouraged Israel to continue in colonial policies unabated.
In addition to calling on the UN Security Council to intervene against Israeli procedures in Jerusalem, the ministry also demanded that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) uphold its resolution
passed earlier this month criticizing Israeli policies in East Jerusalem.
While the Security Council
passed a resolution in December denouncing Israel’s illegal settlement expansion, the United States, one of five Security Council member states with veto power, has typically prevented the passage of resolutions deemed critical of Israel.
The fate of Jerusalem has been a focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, with numerous tensions arising over Israeli threats regarding the status of non-Jewish religious sites in the city, and the "Judaization" of East Jerusalem through settlement construction and mass demolitions of Palestinian homes.