Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – The Israeli Defense Ministry Sunday announced its decision to close a main crossing near occupied Jerusalem, barring thousands of Palestinian residents and students from reaching their destinations. Jamil Sandouqa, head of the Ras Khamis neighborhood's development committee, said that Israeli ministry informed him of its decision to close the Ras Khamis checkpoint effective Tuesday. Sandouqa said that residents and some 3,000 students of his neighborhood and Ras Shihadeh, Dahiyat Al-Salam, Anata neighborhoods and Shu'fat refugee camp will be forced to use alternative and long routes to reach their disseminations in occupied Jerusalem. The neighborhoods are within the Jerusalem municipal limits but are on the Palestinian side of the separation wall. Sandouqa said that the residents of the Palestinian neighborhoods will organize in the coming days a series of protests and rallies against the Israeli move. He called on local and international human rights organizations to pressure Israeli to cancel the decision. The official said that thousands of Jerusalemites are under the threat of losing their residency in occupied Jerusalem since they are living in these areas. In July, a senior Palestinian official warned that some 120,000 Jerusalem residents east of the separation wall are under the threat of losing their residency due to the Jerusalem municipality's new policy. Ahmed Al-Rowaidhi, the chief of Al-Quds Unit at the Palestinian presidency, said that residents of the East Jerusalem's Shu'fat refugee camp, Ras Khamis, the neighborhoods of Ras Shihadeh and Al-Salam, Al-Bareed, Kafr Aqab, Samiramees, Anata, Hizma and al-Za'im “are under the risk of losing residency rights in East Jerusalem following the agreement between the municipality and the Israeli army.” Once stripped of their residency, Al-Rowaidhi said that the residents of these areas “would lose their jobs, and access to East Jerusalem's schools and health services.” He added that the Israeli measures in East Jerusalem “aims at changing the demographic balance and changing its landmarks to Judaizing it.” Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in 1980.
