Israeli forces to block Palestinian entry into west Jerusalem on Yom Kippur

Israeli forces will set up more than a hundred road blocks in Jerusalem to block Palestinian traffic on the Jewish religious holiday Yom Kippur.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

08 October, 2019

Israeli forces set up roadblocks in West Jerusalem before the start of Yom Kippur [AFP/Getty]

Palestinians will be barred from entering West Jerusalem on Yom Kippur by hundreds of roadblocks placed strategically around the divided city.

Israeli police released a map of the 112 roadblocks dotted around Jerusalem, aimed at "preventing Arab traffic from disrupting the holiday in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods", according to Israel National News.

"Like every year, the police are preparing for Yom Kippur in Jerusalem with officers, Border Police officers, and volunteers, who are positioned across the city and work throughout the holiday to ensure public order," a police spokesperson said.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, will begin on Tuesday evening and typically sees a lot of residents out on the streets as they refrain from driving.

Thousands of Jews will also visit the Western Wall in East Jerusalem's Old City on the religious holiday, which ends on Wednesday evening

To mark Yom Kippur, dozens of Jewish settlers stormed East Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in the Islamic faith, on Tuesday morning.

The 230 settlers were accompanied by Israeli police and joined by Israeli Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Uri Ariel and former member of Knesset for Likud party Yehuda Glick, Anadolu Agency reported.

The Muslim Waqf (Endowment) Council in Jerusalem, which runs al-Aqsa Mosque, has called on the Israeli government to halt these excursion.

Hundreds of Jewish settlers also forced their way into the compound at the end of September on Rosh Hashanah, the festival which marks the start of the Jewish new year.

The head of the Supreme Islamic Authority in Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrema Sabri denounced the storming of the mosque saying that, "these intrusions are constantly being repeated, especially during Jewish festivals".

He told the Arabi 21 news website that "through these incidents, the Israeli occupation wants to impose a new situation… but these attempts will fail because Muslims always stand up to them".

Jewish extremist groups which advocate for the demolition of al-Aqsa Mosque and the building of a Jewish temple in its place often call on Israelis to storm the compound.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War in a move never recognised by the international community.