Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan signed Thursday morning an extension of the order preventing the activity of the Palestinian Authority in eastern Jerusalem, after adopting the recommendations of the Shin Bet and the Israel Police on the matter.
The order limits the activities of the “Orient House,” a building in eastern Jerusalem that served as the de-facto headquarters of the PLO in the 1980s and 1990s . It also limits the operations of the “East Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce,” the “Supreme Council for the Arab Tourism Industry,” the “Center for Palestinian Studies,” the “Palestinian Prisoner Club” and the “Ministry for Social and Statistical Studies,” due to their affiliation with the Palestinian Authority.
“The extension of the closure of these Palestinian institutions is a message to the Palestinian Authority and the residents of eastern Jerusalem that the State of Israel does not intend to relinquish in any way its sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem and will not allow any foothold in it,” Erdan said. “The Palestinian Authority has recently been making great efforts to strengthen its presence in eastern Jerusalem in sophisticated ways, including through the transfer of significant funding for activities on its behalf, and intelligence and police forces are constantly working to trace these attempts and stop them. I will continue to strengthen sovereignty and Israeli governance throughout Jerusalem, and I will prevent any Palestinian attempt to establish a foothold in the eastern part of the city.”
The order prevents organizations from carrying out any activities on behalf of the PA in eastern Jerusalem, in accordance with section 3 (a) of the Implementation of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 1994, which prohibits the PA from opening or operating a representative office, or holding a meeting or activity, within the boundaries of the State of Israel, and authorizes the Minister of Public Security to order the prohibition of such activity.
“The struggle for our sovereignty in all parts of Jerusalem continues all the time,” Erdan said. “Any attempt by the PA to gain a foothold in the territory of the State of Israel will be stopped immediately. We will continue to act so that other countries in the world recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and express this in practice by transferring their embassies to Jerusalem.”
