Israel committing crimes against humanity in Jerusalem: Rights group

ANKARA

Israel is committing crimes against humanity in occupied East Jerusalem, the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) said on Monday.

At least 305 people were injured on Monday when Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in East Jerusalem and attacked Palestinians who were on guard to prevent raids by extremist Jews.

Israel is committing violations against worshipers in Jerusalem “by preventing them from accessing places of worship, and using excessive force against them in a way that threatens their lives and most likely leads to death," AOHR said in a statement.

The rights group also condemned the forced displacement of Palestinian families by Israeli authorities in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

"Forced displacement is a war crime and is against humanity,” the AOHR said. “It proves once again that the Israeli judiciary is nothing more than a barbaric tool to pass racist Zionist crimes against Palestinian civilians.”

The Israeli Central Court in East Jerusalem recently approved a decision to evict seven Palestinian families from their homes in favor of Israeli settlers, triggering protests across Jerusalem in solidarity with the residents of Sheikh Jarrah.

Israeli police have violently cracked down on the protests, injuring scores of Palestinians.

AOHR lambasted the "disgraceful international failure to restrict the barbarity of the occupation and apply the rules of [international] law" against it, going on to call on the Arab League to hold an emergency meeting to put forward “effective measures to stop the occupation's aggression and protect the holy sites”.

It also called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (OHCHR) to convene an extraordinary session to look into the grave crimes committed by Israel in Jerusalem while holding the UN Security Council and Israel’s allies “fully responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the region”.

Extremist Jews have called for storming Al-Aqsa Mosque to celebrate the anniversary of the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel occupied East Jerusalem, as "Jerusalem Day" according to the Hebrew calendar.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara