RAMALLAH, West Bank, 15 September 2004 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei yesterday condemned Israel’s closure of six voter registration centers in Arab East Jerusalem, accusing Israel of trying to “Judaize” the holy city. Palestinians opened the offices earlier this month to register East Jerusalem voters for a future Palestinian general election, a step toward meeting international and domestic demands for Palestinian reform.
But Israeli police said they closed the offices on Monday, accusing Palestinians of “illegal polling activities”. Israel considers all of Jerusalem, including the Arab eastern sector, as its capital and objects to Palestinian electioneering there. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they seek in Israeli-occupied territories.
“The Israeli decision constitutes a flagrant violation to all signed agreements and international law,” Qorei said in a statement issued in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops dispersed a peaceful protest against the West Bank separation wall involving several hundred Palestinians and foreign activists. Soldiers fired tear gas canisters as demonstrators tried to prevent bulldozers from leveling land that belong to Palestinian residents of Deir Samit village, west of the main southern West Bank town of Hebron.
The villagers had been joined by hundreds of other Palestinians from the two neighboring communities of Beit Awwa and Al-Kum and by foreign activists from the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
Once completed, that segment of the wall will take in 200 hectares (500 acres) of Palestinian agricultural land.
