Arkansas Online

A homewreck in east Jerusalem

Palestinians complain to U.N. council

ILAN BEN ZION Information for this article was contributed by Joseph Krauss of The Associated Press.

JERUSALEM — Israeli police on Wednesday evicted Palestinians from a disputed property in a flash point Jerusalem neighborhood and demolished the building, leaving some 15 people homeless in the wake of a tense standoff earlier this week.

The predawn demolition took place in Sheikh Jarrah, an east Jerusalem neighborhood where attempts by Jewish settlers to evict longtime Palestinian residents have sparked protests that last year helped lead to an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza militants.

The latest demolition is a separate case, with the city saying it is removing the family to make way for what will be a large school for Palestinian children with special needs. But it also has set off local protests and drawn international criticism, with the Palestinians complaining about the issue Wednesday to the United Nations Security Council.

This week, residents of the building held a tense standoff with police who came to evict them. Eventually police backed off, after demolishing a nearby plant nursery owned by the family.

Police moved in under the cover of darkness early Wednesday, removing the family and demolishing the home. Police said 18 people were arrested for alleged public disorder.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the eviction, calling it a “war crime,” and saying that Israel bears full responsibility for its “serious repercussions.” In a statement from his office, he called on the United States to “intervene immediately to halt the continuing Israeli crimes against our people in Jerusalem.”

A lawyer for the Salhiya family said they purchased the property before 1967, when Israel captured east Jerusalem, and have been living there for over 70 years.

The municipality claims the land was always zoned for public use but was owned by other Arabs, who it has declined to name. It said the owners will be compensated, but that the Salhiya family are squatters who built there illegally in the 1990s.

“These illegal buildings had been preventing the construction of a school which can benefit the children of the entire Sheikh Jarrah community,” a joint statement from the city and police read.

City Hall later announced Mayor Moshe Lion ordered officials to provide a rented home to the family at the city’s expense.

The case has been in court for several years and a Jerusalem judge last year ruled in favor of the city and authorized the eviction. The family has appealed and is awaiting a ruling, but the judge did not freeze the eviction order.

Palestinians in east Jerusalem say it is almost impossible to get building authorization from the city, forcing them to build homes without permits or to move to the occupied West Bank.

Hagit Ofran, a researcher for the anti-settlement group Peace Now, acknowledged the family had been unable to prove ownership. But she said it was clear they have lived there for years.

Ofran said the house could have been left intact since the new school is to be built on an adjacent plot of land.

“This expropriation could have been done without evicting them,” she said. “It’s in Sheikh Jarrah, it’s in this very sensitive time, all the world is looking and the government didn’t find the sense to stop it.”

Dozens of Palestinian families in east Jerusalem are at risk of eviction by Jewish settler organizations, and thousands face the threat of demolition because of discriminatory policies that make it extremely difficult for Palestinians to build new homes or expand existing ones.

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