An-Najah News - Palestinians celebrate the Muslim festival of sacrifice Eid al-Adha, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis with total of 86 deaths and 15555 coronabvirus cases since the pandemic.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has imposed a partial lockdown over areas under its control to battle a surge in new cases, forcing many businesses to close and sending unemployment to an estimated 18 percent, according to Palestinian sources.

An-Najah News - PLO welcomed a protest letter signed by European diplomats against Israel's plans to commence construction in an East Jerusalem area known as E1, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) urged Europe to turn its words into action in order to stop the new settlement plans and deter Israeli occupation 

The PLO reaction came after the European Union Representative as well as ambassadors of 15 European countries have submitted a protest letter to the Israeli Foreign Ministry regarding intention to start building in E1 area, east of occupied Jerusalem.

 Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO's Executive Committee said that the Palestinian leadership welcomes the protest letter signed by European Ambassadors against Israel's plans to commence construction in the illegal settlement of "Givat Hamatos" and possibly the so-called E1 Area on the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem.

" However, we believe that the European Union, as well as the governments of these 15 states (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden) should adopt actionable decisions that would deter Israel from persisting on the path of illegality, impunity, and de facto annexation" . Said Ashrawi

Ashrawi warned that if implemented, "these Israeli plans would completely sever occupied Jerusalem from its natural Palestinian surrounding and cut the occupied West Bank in half. They would complete the Greater Jerusalem colonial project with the theft of strategic Palestinian land and the physical obstruction of any contiguity of a future Palestinian state."