Occupied Jerusalem -

While interacting and defending Salem's family, who are threatened with expulsion from their home in the western part of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in favor of settlers, Al-Maqdisi Muhammad Abu Al-Hummus challenged the extremist Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir and set up a symbolic office opposite his office, and since then he has paid the price.

The occupation police were not satisfied with beating Abu al-Hummus, dragging him and removing his office 11 times, but also chased after him for his livelihood, and issued a fine for him worth 320 US dollars on his minibus that transports school students, then notified him that this vehicle was illegal and confiscated it immediately.

The occupation police repeated the same punitive measure with the elderly Jerusalemite Nafeesa Khweis, who is in the neighborhood daily, and issued an arbitrary violation against her and confiscated the tuk-tuk she was traveling in.

With these measures, many Jerusalemites who reacted automatically to the events of their hot city may end up in prisons, and if they are not imprisoned there, many penalties are imposed on them, starting with withdrawing their residency cards in Jerusalem, passing them off from their places of work, and not ending with preventing them from entering the city. Travel.

Jerusalemites are subject to penalties such as imposing fines and activating tax files against them because of their national activities in their city (Al-Jazeera)

unfair dismissal

Jerusalem activist Ramzi al-Absi - who has been working for 13 years in physiotherapy for children with special needs in two schools affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Education - was dismissed from his job due to his interaction with the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood issue and his solidarity with the neighborhood's residents as well.

The history of the prosecution of al-Abbasi has a long explanation, but he says that the first of his pursuits began in the summer of 2019 when an Israeli soldier assaulted him in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, causing him to break his right leg, only to be surprised later to be accused of assaulting a soldier and provoking riots.

Al-Abbasi told Al-Jazeera Net, "The file against me was not closed, and I was constantly under the surveillance of the occupation intelligence until I issued a decision that I should be dismissed from my job because I was inciting riots, on the background of my solidarity with the issue of the people of Karam Al-Jaouni in Sheikh Jarrah last summer."

This young man tried to go through a legal path to repeal the decision of the occupation intelligence, but the latter confirmed it last January, and Ramzi was actually dismissed from his work, and then a week ago he received a new decision banning him from traveling as well.

Al-Abbasi said, "During my stay last week in front of the Salem family's house in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, the occupation intelligence summoned me for investigation, and asked me to hand over the passport, claiming that I was going to participate in a Palestinian conference in Turkey to talk about the neighborhood issue, and you see in this that I am providing information about the State of Israel to terrorist parties." .

He comments, "Anyone who expects the occupier to allow him to practice any form of peaceful resistance is stupid."

He added, "This is the normal situation, that we be punished and repressed, but I respond to them by saying that my voice will remain loud, and I will continue to expose the practices of the occupation against us."


Murabat is a constant target

In turn, the Jerusalemite fighter Fatima Khader has been subjected to many penalties because of her insistence on interacting with the hot issues of Jerusalem, and one of the harshest things she faced was cutting old-age pensions for her claiming that her place of residence is outside Jerusalem, and she is forced to prove the opposite throughout the year.

Khader faces the penalty of deportation from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City on an ongoing basis, like other Jerusalemites who took it upon themselves to stand in the first line of defense for the first two Qiblahs.

As for the Jerusalemite teacher, Hanadi Al-Halawani, all forms of punishments were imposed on her because of her insistence on defending Al-Aqsa Mosque and spreading its cause.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, she said that the occupation intelligence began in 2013 threatening her with sanctions and began imposing them in a simple way at first, but in 2015 Al-Halawani was subjected to a set of penalties based on a "secret file" that she and her lawyers could not be informed of.

Her health insurance was cut off, she was deported from the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque, banned from traveling, from entering the West Bank, and from participating in any public or electronic activity, in addition to constantly breaking into her home, tampering with its contents, and confiscating various electronic devices from it.

Al-Halawani was subjected to all of these penalties, while the ban on travel and expulsion from Al-Aqsa Mosque is now applied to her. She sarcastically says that the only punishment that the occupation intelligence has threatened her with, which she has not yet implemented, is "deportation to the Gaza Strip or Turkey."

Lawyer Zabarka: Many Jerusalemites lose the right to defend themselves because of their conviction based on a secret indictment (Al-Jazeera)

Taxes and home demolitions

In addition to these, dozens of Jerusalemites have been subjected to arbitrary punitive measures such as exorbitant fines for merchants, opening tax files for them as soon as they talk or respond to the attacks of the occupation police or its municipal staff on their shops, and expedite the implementation of orders to demolish homes that fall within the framework of the "punitive demolition" of the homes of some activists. Last year, the house of Al-Aqsa Mosque guard, Fadi Elyan, was demolished.

Withdrawing the residency card in Jerusalem is considered one of the harshest punishments faced by Jerusalemites, among whom are the deputies of the Legislative Council who were expelled from the city and the former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, for allegedly “violating allegiance” to the State of Israel.

The lawyer specialized in Jerusalem cases, Khaled Zabarka, comments on the punitive measures against Jerusalemites for their political activity, saying that they violate the basic rights guaranteed by all laws, such as the right to movement and movement, expression of opinion, worship and belief, housing and others.

Zabarka adds that all Jerusalemites have the right to interact and solidarity with the hot issues in the city, and doing so does not entail any violation or breach of public order, as the occupation police claim.

The lawyer says, "The justification that is used to prosecute Jerusalemites is always the claim of having "confidential information" that condemns them, not legal procedures based on clear violations, and here lies the danger, especially since the police have become the tool used by the occupation to suppress the freedoms of Jerusalemites."