Health Work Committees (HWC) has declared that the Israeli occupation forces have closed Nidal Center for Community Development in Al-Jabasheh neighborhood in the Old City of the occupied Jerusalem.

According to the available information, many troops of the Israeli police and army invaded Nidal center and forced the staff of the center to leave the building in order to close it.

After evacuating the staff from the center, doors of the offices were closed and an order statement by what so called “General Inspector: Doodi Cohen” was presented. This statement affirms the closure of the center till the 11^th of August 2009. It is worth mentioning that the order was issued three days ago.

According to the statement, Cohen depended in his decision on the 6^th article of the anti terrorism law for the year 1948. He also says that he believes that Nidal Center is a threat to the security of Israelis and therefore he ordered closing the center till 11/08/2009.

Cohen adds in another paragraph of his statement: “I inform you by this that I am thinking of issuing another order to close such places for the period of one year”.

We at HWC confirm that the closure of Nidal Center for Community Development which provides its cultural and development services to the Jerusalemites is only another violation goes under the systemized attach against Jerusalem.

Today, the Israelis occupation has started harassing the Jerusalemite non governmental organizations after they targeted the Jerusalemites through their racist violations.

We at HWC reaffirm our rejection to the Israeli decision to close Nidal Center and we demand the local and international human rights organizations to interfere immediately to stop the Israeli practices against the working Palestinian organizations in Jerusalem.