JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police have broken up a meeting of Palestinian parents in East Jerusalem about educating their children, claiming it was illegally funded by the Palestinian authorities.
Saturday’s operation came days after Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gubir, an ultranationalist with a long record of anti-Arab rhetoric and stunts, began his post as part of Israel’s new government, the most conservative right-wing ever. He now supervises the police.
Police said the meeting was in violation of Israeli law, claiming it was funded by the Palestinian authorities and attended by PA activists. Police prevented the meeting from taking place and said they were acting on Ben Guvir’s orders. Police refused to provide evidence to support their claims, and a Ben-Gvir spokesman referred the question to police.
Ziad Shamari, head of the Jerusalem Student Parents Committee, which was holding the meeting, denied PA involvement and said it was held to discuss teacher shortages in East Jerusalem schools. He said he viewed allegations of ties to the PA as a “political pretext to ban” the conference.
The Palestinian Authority was established to administer Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank. Israel opposes any official work the PA is conducting in East Jerusalem, and police have in the past broken up cases they claimed were PA-related.
Israel occupied and later annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, a move largely disapproved of by the international community. Israel sees this city as an undivided eternal capital. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of their desired nation.
About a third of the city’s population is Palestinian and has long faced neglect and discrimination by Israeli authorities in areas such as education, housing and public services.
Ben-Gvir has advocated a tougher policy toward Palestinians, a stance that appears to be rooted in the government.On Friday, his ministers agreed to a series of punitive measures against Palestinians In retaliation for their calls to the UN’s highest judicial body to give an opinion on the Israeli occupation.
