Dozens of Israeli peace activists demonstrated in Jerusalem on Monday against what they said was the Jewish state's discrimination against the some 200,000 Palestinians who live in the holy city.
"Enough of the apartheid of the ministry of interior," read picket signs held by the demonstrators from the pro-peace group B'Tselem.
The protest was held in front of the Israeli branch of the interior ministry in the Arab eastern section of Jerusalem, a building which B'Tselem said was a symbol of Israel's institutional bias against Palestinians in Jerusalem, who hold Israeli residency cards but are not citizens.
"This building is the most blatant example of government discrimination," said B'Tselem spokeswoman Jessica Montell.
B'Tselem said that the interior ministry building used for Arabs is in much poorer condition than the one in Jewish west Jerusalem, being overcrowded, understaffed and lacking in toilets, air conditioning and water.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East war and considers it as part of its "united and eternal" capital, in contradiction to UN resolutions.
The Palestinians, however, hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state.
The fate of east Jerusalem is one of the key disputes holding up an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, due to have been reached on September 13 -- JERUSALEM(AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
