Ahead of his visit to the USA: Pro-Palestinian organization demands the arrest of the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem

The Hind Rajab Foundation announced on Tuesday that it has appealed to the US Department of Justice with a demand to initiate criminal proceedings against the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Arieh King. The organization attributes to King involvement in what it defines as a "war crime of unlawful transfer of population" as well as "incitement to genocide." The appeal was filed ahead of King's expected arrival in the United States next week, as part of a fundraising campaign for the Israel Land Fund, which he founded.

According to publications by opponents of the visit, King is expected to arrive in the US after a visit to Canada, where events were scheduled for him in Toronto and Montreal. In the last day, the Legal Center for Palestine, in cooperation with the Hind Rajab Foundation, also filed a complaint with the War Crimes Investigation Unit of the Canadian Federal Police.

King, who holds Israeli and British citizenship, is one of the leaders of the Jewish settlement movement in East Jerusalem. According to the foundation, he used his public positions and his activity in the Israel Land Fund to bring about the eviction of Palestinians from their homes and the transfer of assets to Jews, among other places in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods. The organization claims that these acts may be considered "unlawful transfer of protected persons" according to the Geneva Convention, and therefore also a war crime under American law.

A central part of the appeal deals with statements King made during the war. The organization notes, among other things, his calls to stop aid to the Gaza Strip, his support for protesters who blocked aid trucks, and the calls to deport the residents of the Strip and destroy their cities. The appeal also includes a post attributed to King, in which Palestinian detainees were seen handcuffed and kneeling on the ground. Next to the picture, he allegedly wrote that if it were up to him, he would order D9 bulldozers to bury them alive. The post was later removed.

The foundation also attributes to King "prolonged incitement against UNRWA." According to its claim, he called the UN agency a "Nazi terrorist organization," welcomed the burning of one of its compounds, and called to "expel, destroy, and kill all UNRWA personnel." The organization links these statements to King's struggle to close the agency's institutions in East Jerusalem.

The foundation's representative in the United States, Jake Rom, called on the authorities to "arrest, prosecute, and punish him." The foundation's CEO, Diab Abu Jahjah, stated that "those involved in dispossession and the attempt to destroy a people cannot move freely behind a wall of immunity."

For now, this is a one-sided appeal by the organization requesting to open proceedings against King, and not an indictment or an arrest warrant. The US Department of Justice has not announced that an investigation has been opened against him, and there is no confirmation that the authorities have adopted the factual claims or the legal interpretation presented by the foundation.

King rejected the allegations against him. In response to Walla, he said: "I am proud to be a faithful messenger of the Jewish people in Israel and the world. The antisemitic Hind Rajab Foundation has a problem with our very Jewishness and the commandments that the Torah commanded us to keep. This foundation is a radical Muslim arm that sees Jews and the State of Israel as a barrier on Islam's path to take over power centers in the world, and this is the Muslim culture since its founding by Muhammad. This foundation is antisemitism under the guise of human rights activity."

"Needless to say, I draw inspiration from the current US administration, which supports the Jewish settlement enterprise in East Jerusalem and supports the removal of UNRWA from its operations in Jerusalem, and even froze the budget that the US had given for years to the Nazi terrorist organization that waves the UNRWA flag," King added.