(Jerusalem) The Israeli police, who had been trying since Monday to evict a Palestinian family from their house in East Jerusalem occupied and annexed by the Jewish state, had to backtrack on Tuesday, several of the inhabitants threatening to set themselves on fire.
Posted at 4:10 p.m.
The Salhiya family has been under threat of eviction since 2017, as the land on which the family home stands in Sheikh Jarrah was allocated for the construction of a school in this neighborhood in the Palestinian sector of Jerusalem.
In May, demonstrations in support of Palestinian families threatened with eviction in Sheikh Jarrah degenerated into clashes with the police and Israeli settlers, the first signs of a new outbreak of deadly violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, shortly after Israeli police arrived to try to enforce the eviction order, members of the Salhiya family took refuge with a barrel of gasoline on the roof of their home, threatening to set themselves on fire. ‘they are forced to leave.
Children from the Salhiya family were still holed up on the roof on Tuesday when security forces withdrew from Sheikh Jarrah, their father, Mahmoud, told AFP.
According to him, no agreement has been reached with the police, but the family’s lawyers filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn the eviction order.
For its part, the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem reaffirmed on Tuesday to AFP its intention to carry out the evacuation order, in accordance with a court decision, accusing the Salhiya family of occupying the premises “illegally”.
“A whole different story”
Dozens of people held vigils around campfires near the Salhiya home, according to an AFP reporter.
In the evening, an Israeli police spokesman told AFP that Palestinians threw stones at members of the security forces passing through the neighborhood. Sound grenades were used to disperse them, without causing injuries, the same source said.
In East Jerusalem, hundreds of Palestinian families who have been there for decades are facing eviction orders for Jewish settlers. Seven families have already appealed to the Supreme Court against eviction notices.
Some 210,000 Israelis are settled in East Jerusalem in illegal settlements under international law, while Palestinians claim the area as the capital of their future state.
According to Israeli law, if Jews can prove that their family lived in East Jerusalem before the 1948 war and the creation of Israel, they can ask for their “property rights” to be restored.
However, such a law does not exist for Palestinians who lost their property during the war. And the Palestinian families claim to have legally purchased their properties from the Jordanian authorities, who controlled East Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967.
But according to Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the Salhiyas’ case is “an entirely different story.” During a press briefing, she accused the family of illegally using land that never belonged to them, assuring that the municipality had bought it “from Arab owners” in order to build a school for children there. Palestinians.