PA Foreign Ministry: “Colonialist” Israel is “Judaizing Jerusalem”; fabricating history to destroy Arab connection
Headline: "The [PA] Foreign Ministry held the Israeli government responsible for the consequences of its excavations under Jerusalem"
"Today, Wednesday [June 22, 2016], the [PA] Foreign Ministry held the Israeli government responsible for the consequences of its colonialist excavations under Jerusalem. The ministry made a statement that the extreme right-wing government of [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu 'continues to use all its capabilities in its all-out war against occupied East Jerusalem and the Palestinian presence within it, in order to complete its arbitrary Judaization actions and separate it from its Palestinian surroundings. In order to accomplish this, the Israeli occupation authorities and their various branches and organizations are trying to change the state’s character and distort its Arab Palestinian identity by far-reaching forgeries on two levels – above ground and underground. Above ground, by building settlement cities, paving a wide network of roads, taking over many Palestinian homes in the Old City [of Jerusalem] and the Arab neighborhoods in the city and expelling their residents, and by wholesale Palestinian home demolitions. Meanwhile, underground the occupation authorities are forging all the historical facts that are found in the belly of the earth and that verify the Arabness of Jerusalem.'
The ministry added that in order to achieve this 'Since 1967 the occupation state has continued to excavate a widespread network of tunnels, passages, and plazas, to establish underground synagogues, and to play with the historical antiquities found in the belly [of the ground]. This was recently exposed in the Hebrew media, which verified that the excavations taking place under the Old City and the Palestinian villages that surround it are being done for political motives, in order to create new facts that will be in line with the ideology of the extreme right that is ruling in Israel.'"
"Today, Wednesday [June 22, 2016], the [PA] Foreign Ministry held the Israeli government responsible for the consequences of its colonialist excavations under Jerusalem. The ministry made a statement that the extreme right-wing government of [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu 'continues to use all its capabilities in its all-out war against occupied East Jerusalem and the Palestinian presence within it, in order to complete its arbitrary Judaization actions and separate it from its Palestinian surroundings. In order to accomplish this, the Israeli occupation authorities and their various branches and organizations are trying to change the state’s character and distort its Arab Palestinian identity by far-reaching forgeries on two levels – above ground and underground. Above ground, by building settlement cities, paving a wide network of roads, taking over many Palestinian homes in the Old City [of Jerusalem] and the Arab neighborhoods in the city and expelling their residents, and by wholesale Palestinian home demolitions. Meanwhile, underground the occupation authorities are forging all the historical facts that are found in the belly of the earth and that verify the Arabness of Jerusalem.'
The ministry added that in order to achieve this 'Since 1967 the occupation state has continued to excavate a widespread network of tunnels, passages, and plazas, to establish underground synagogues, and to play with the historical antiquities found in the belly [of the ground]. This was recently exposed in the Hebrew media, which verified that the excavations taking place under the Old City and the Palestinian villages that surround it are being done for political motives, in order to create new facts that will be in line with the ideology of the extreme right that is ruling in Israel.'"