New Palestinian census causes clash over Jerusalum

The machine gun attack on the two settlers came almost two weeks before a major battle over Jerusalem breaks out between the Palestinian government and Israel. In the first week of December, the Palestinian government plans to start its first census of the Palestinian population that will also include East Jerusalem.

Israel has announced that it will prevent the Palestinians from conducting the census in East Jerusalem because it undermines its own "sovereignty" over the city. Police minister Avigdor Kahalani claimed the census violates the Oslo Accords and announced that he intended to take action to prevent such a violation in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians, however, insist East Jerusalem is an integral part of the occupied Arab territories conquered by Israel in 1967 and therefore should be included in the census.

To undermine Israeli threats of punishing every East Jerusalemite who participates in the census and hands over the data requested, the Palestinian government said it would not force those who live in East Jerusalem to give all their details, such as their Israeli-issued identity card numbers.