After the occupation municipality completed work in the courtyard of Salah El-Din Street near the Shtayyeh Building and the Jerusalem Electricity Company, in the beginning of March 2022, it installed sunshades as a cover and roof for the yard, and benches and tiles in that area.

The municipality’s doing this is a clear message of the continuous Judaization of Jerusalem and its neighborhoods, streets and squares. Placing such umbrellas is similar to what was done in the “western” Jerusalem squares, as the Salah al-Din Street area became similar to municipal facilities painted in a purely Israeli color, such as those squares on Jaffa Street and others.

Salah El-Din Street is a symbol and a historic Jerusalem landmark and one of the most important streets around Old Jerusalem, which is the city’s commercial and social nerve center, and by targeting it and giving it an Israeli character, it destroys the Palestinian cultural scene in the area surrounding the Old City.

It is worth noting that the historical Salah El-Din Street dates back to the Ottoman period, extending from Bab Al-Sahira in the south and cutting north of the city until the beginning of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the north at the tombs of the kings, and contains many ancient shops, and thousands of Jerusalemites visit it on a daily basis for shopping, clothes carriers, and restaurants, schools, Sharia court, bookstores and many vegetable and cake stalls. However, the occupation has set up its courts on this street, a central post office and a police station, and it tightens the screws on the shop owners on a daily basis through irregularities and the payment of arnona.