DEFEND JERUSALEM has requested that Member of Knesset (MK) Ayelet Shaked, the Interior Minister, use the full power of her office to prevent Hafez al-Rafa’i, a senior officer serving both the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, from entering the State of Israel.
Hafez al-Rafa’i is a Brigadier-General in the Palestinian Authority’s National Security Forces—the PA’s paramilitary security arm. The areas under his command include Ramallah, al-Bireh, and East Jerusalem. As a high-ranking officer inside the PA’s security apparatus, al-Rafa’i is a member of both the Palestinian Authority and Fatah’s executive committees that focus on efforts to undermine Israeli sovereignty and security in Jerusalem; he is the Palestinian military and security commander for all matters Jerusalem.
What makes al-Rafa’i so dangerous is his role as one of the architects of what is known as the “slow-creep,” a strategic tactic of civil unrest and inciting violence that is meant to undermine Jewish Jerusalem and the unified city as the capital of the State of Israel. through the incitement of violence; the plan is to ultimately undermine Israeli sovereignty in the capital. His efforts have resulted in bloodshed—most recently, during the May 2021 disturbances in the Old City that ultimately spread across Israel.
Hafez al-Rafa’i’s actions violate Israeli security and criminal laws, and they violate the provisions of the 1994 Oslo Accords that prohibit Palestinian Authority officers from engaging in hostile operations against the State of Israel. As a result, DEFEND JERUSALEM requests that Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked use the full enforcement powers of her office to permanently bar Hafez al-Rafa’i from entering the State of Israel.
