Palestinian center urges UNHRC to act on Israeli breaches

An urgent complaint was presented by the London-based Palestinian Return Center (PRC) to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, calling for urgent intervention on Israel’s closure of holy al-Aqsa Mosque and violations of the freedom of worship.

In the memorandum, PRC sounded the alarm over Israel’s incessant violations of the freedom of worship by stepping up crackdowns on the Muslim worshipers, shutting the doors to holy al-Aqsa Mosque, and setting up metal detectors near the main entrances to the site.

PRC said it believes the measures have also affected the members of the Christian community in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who have been banned the right to a free access to their holy sites.

PRC said such Israeli measures represent blatant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9, which grants “the freedom to exercise religion or belief publicly or privately, alone or with others” and “the freedom to exercise religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

The complaint warned that the Israeli government is rapidly expanding its Judization activities in the occupied al-Quds ('Jerusalem'), desecrating the holy sites of Muslims and Christians, and boosting settler break-ins at al-Aqsa—the third holiest site in Islam, accoding to PIC.

In light of the above cited violations, PRC called on the Human Rights Council to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Jerusalem, issue an urgent statement to denounce the new Israeli measures, and take whatever necessary decisions within the jurisdiction of the council to hold Israel to account.