Palestinian anger as E. Jerusalem streets close for Israeli marathon
Date
3/18/2016 6:50:01 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) >Israeli police on Friday deployed hundreds of officers to the streets of Jerusalem to provide protection for the “6th International Marathon” which runs through parts of the old city.
Israeli police in a statement said around 1000 police officers accompanied by 800 volunteers were deployed. Police said around 25000 people participated in the marathon.
Palestinian Jerusalemites have been complaining about the closure of a number of streets in occupied East Jerusalem.
“The so-called marathon is a political message that the Israeli occupation uses to claim its sovereignty over the city and to give the impression that the city lives in harmony and this is not true” Ahmed al-Rwaidy director of the Jerusalem unit at the Palestinian presidency told Anadolu Agency.
“The mayor of Israel’s Jerusalem municipality Nir Barakat who announced the beginning of the marathon was the same person the world saw last October carrying a weapon on the streets of the city as he called on settlers to use theirs in order to stop the Palestinian uprising” he added.
Al-Rwaidy noted that the marathon is another attempt to destroy the two-state solution by giving a message that the whole of Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.
By Anees Bargouthi
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