By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : Israeli Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon said Thursday that the Palestinian neighborhoods of the perpetrators in the recent two deadly attacks in Jerusalem should be cut off from the city.
Speaking a day after a Palestinian man from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Zur Baher killed three women and injured dozens in a bulldozer rampage in downtown Jerusalem before being shot dead, Ramon told Army Radio that Israel should treat the neighborhood as a Palestinian village, and revoke the permanent residency status of their residents.
“One of the main reasons that the attack was carried out yesterday with such ease was because there are Palestinian villages that for some reason are called Jerusalem. They need to be treated as we treat Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin and Nablus,” said Ramon.
Similar measures also should be applied to residents of Jabel Mukaber, another Palestinians neighborhood in east Jerusalem where lived the gunmen who killed eight people at a Jerusalem yeshiva in March, Ramon added.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, a portion of the holy city mostly populated by Arab residents, who, in contrast to Palestinians in the West Bank, have full freedom towork and travel throughout Israel.
Following Wednesday’s killing spree, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert instructed his ministers to consider demolishing the home of the bulldozer driver and annulling the social security benefits of his family.
Israeli attorney general is set to meet with defense officials Thursday to discuss the legality of the demolition. Many officials favor such a measure, though a previous military inquiry found the practice to be ineffectual in deterring.