JERUSALEM
Israeli authorities are planning to take additional punitive steps against a group of Palestinian activists and their relatives in occupied East Jerusalem, according to a report in the Israeli press.
"For months, police have been giving the Jerusalem municipality lists of hundreds of Palestinian residents suspected of security offenses, the goal being for the city to penalize them beyond whatever criminal proceedings police can initiate," Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
"Municipal employees investigate the suspects and their relatives to see whether it's possible, for instance, to demolish an illegally built house, collect unpaid municipal taxes, or close an unlicensed business," Haaretz added.
The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of one such blacklist, which contained the names of a number of targeted Palestinians in Jerusalem.
The lists, it reported, include the names of hundreds of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, some of whom were detained by Israel last summer during a wave of unrest in the city.
"Other [Palestinians on the list] are considered local leaders," Haaretz said.
Israeli police say they detained over two thousand Palestinians in East Jerusalem during a spate of Palestinian demonstrations that followed the abduction and murder of a local Palestinian teenager by Israeli settlers last summer.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War.
In 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community, it annexed the entire city, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state.
