For a number of months, ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) officials have been warning the appropriate government officials that the PA (Palestinian Authority) continues to step-up activities in eastern portions of the capital, which are already Palestine, run under PA autonomous rule regarding many services. The Jewish state’s rule over certain areas of predominately Arab Jerusalem are all but gone in some areas, and the government for all intensive purposes continues to turn a blind eye to the alarming reality that occurs on a daily basis.

The operations taking place in the eastern capital today are far more extensive when Israel shut down Orient House, the PA’s Jerusalem-based governmental building, yet nothing is being done. PA security forces operate in the eastern capital, and millions of dollars are being invested by the PA towards establishing its infrastructure in the eastern area of Jerusalem towards declaring it the capital of Palestine.

The intelligence agency reports the fact that PA Prime Minister Salim Fayyad assumed the ministerial post of Jerusalem Affairs is the clearest sign of the PA’s intentions. After Abu Mazen announced the State of Palestine would be declared within two years, Fayyad assumed the post, aware there must be a strong Arab infrastructure if they are to declare eastern Jerusalem as its capital. The PA is using donor funds to make real estate deals, buying as much land as possible in preparation for the statehood declaration.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)