Police allege the meeting was sponsored by the Palestinian Authority and attended by PA activists, which they see as a violation of Israeli law. Police said they had prevented the meeting from taking place and that they were working on Ben-Gvir’s orders to shut it down. Police declined to provide evidence to support their claim, and a spokesperson for Ben-Gvir referred the question to police.
Ziad Shamali, head of the Parents Association of Students in Jerusalem, which organized the meeting, denied there was any involvement of the PA, saying it was held to discuss teacher shortages in schools. east of Jerusalem. He said he considered the PA’s statement of ties to be a “political excuse to ban” the meeting.
The Palestinian Authority was established to administer Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank. Israel opposes any official business conducted by the PA in east Jerusalem, and the police have previously disrupted events they allege are related to the PA.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it, a move not recognized by most of the international community. Israel regards the city as its eternal, indivisible capital. Palestinians seek the area east of the city as the capital of their desired state.
About a third of the city’s population is Palestinian and they have long faced indifference and discrimination at the hands of Israeli authorities, including in education, housing and public services. .
Ben-Gvir has pushed for a tougher line against the Palestinians, a stance that seems to be ingrained in the government. On Friday, its ministers agreed to a series of sanctions Measures against Palestinians in retaliation for asking the highest judicial body of the United Nations to comment on the Israeli occupation.
