Alwaght- Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has strongly condemned Israeli regime's decision to impose punitive taxes on churches as a new aggression against occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), the Palestinian nation, and holy sites.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the move comes as an upshot of the US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize al-Quds as the capital of the usurper Israeli regime.
Barhoum called for serious and practical steps on the ground and for stepping up anti-occupation uprisings so as to thwart such racist US-Israeli schemes.
The group also urged Arabs and Muslims across the globe to stand up for occupied al-Quds and the Palestinians and to try every possible effort to destabilize Israel’s Judaization schemes.
Israeli authorities have recently imposed a property tax (Anona) upon churches, worth up to millions of dollars
Haaretz said that over recent weeks the Israeli municipality in Occupied Jerusalem has initiated a campaign to garner nearly 200 million dollars from al-Quds churches and UN offices.
Al-Quds Christian leaders Sunday made a rare decision to close the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the old City of al-Quds in protest of Israeli regimes abrupt tax policy and a proposed land appropriation law.
Meanwhile, Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the move “should be a reminder of the need to end the Israeli occupation.”
About 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
