France, Germany, Italy and Spain denounced the destruction of the house as well as Israeli plans to build “hundreds of new housing units” on the land thus recovered.
Article written by
Published
Reading time : 1 min.
The Israeli police destroyed, on Wednesday January 19 before dawn, the house of a Palestinian family in the sensitive district of Sheikh Jarrah, in East Jerusalem. Carrying out a controversial eviction order, police evacuated from their home the members of the Salhiya family, threatened with eviction since 2017 and the subject of a campaign of support in the Palestinian Territories and abroad, announced police reporting 18 arrests. An AFP photographer then observed the demolition of the house.
“The police implemented the eviction order” of a family occupying “Buildings illegally erected on land intended for a school for children requiring special care in East Jerusalem”, police said in a statement, adding that the Salhiya family had refused to “return this land”.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki condemned “a merciless war against the Palestinian people”. Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch chief for Israel and the Palestinian Territories, called the ousting a “cruel”, claiming that the family had already been evicted from their home in West Jerusalem in 1948, when the State of Israel was created.
France, Germany, Italy and Spain have also denounced the destruction of the house as well as the Israeli plans to build “hundreds of new housing units” on the land thus recovered. “We urge the Israeli government to halt the eviction and demolition of Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem and [Cisjordanie occupée]”, spokespersons for the foreign ministries of the four countries said in a joint statement.
Last May, demonstrations in support of Palestinian families threatened with eviction in Sheikh Jarrah degenerated into clashes with the Israeli police, protests which provoked deadly violence between Israel and the ruling Palestinian movement Hamas in Gaza, a Palestinian enclave under Israeli blockade.