Tensions high in east al-Quds over evictions

27 December, 2010 13:03

Tensions high in east al-Quds over evictions

Palestinians in the Silwan neighborhood of east Jerusalem al-Quds are served with demolition orders almost on a regular basis. With each demolition come clashes and protests. On Sunday Israeli Police intended to evict 11 Palestinian families from a building so that it can be turned over to the settlers to make way for a synagogue that existed in 1948 on part of the land, where the building stands today. The Israeli Â police also evacuated Jewish occupants of a settlement unit in Silwan, because it was built without a proper permit.

But Palestinians who see the international law on their side want an end to such illegal practices.

However, Palestinian residents of Silwan supported by International solidarity members managed to foil the Israeli police plan to carry out the eviction, by clustering around the building.

The UN relief agency UNRWA has said Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem/al-Quds has increased by 45 percent in 2010. Hundreds of Palestinians have been displaced as a result of such demolitions.

While Israel has granted thousands of permits for settlement construction on Palestinian lands in the last few months, Palestinians find it extremely difficult to get a construction permit on their own land. As a result at least 28% of all homes have been built without a permit.

And as the UN says nearly a quarter of the 250,000 Palestinians living in east Jerusalem are at risk of having their homes demolished by the Israeli authorities.

Meanwhile, on Sunday the Israeli police handed Adnan Geith, a Palestinian activist, an expulsion order and an ultimatum to leave Jerusalem Al Quds and its environs by nightfall for a period of four months.

The banishment order is based on a law from 1945, when Palestine was still under British mandate.

Under this law, the authorities can expel anyone without being criminally charged.

But Adnan Geith has vowed to resist the order. Israel annexed East Jerusalem which is considered occupied territory under international law in 1981, but Palestinians want to make it the capital of their future state.

Tensions remain high in Silwan in east Jerusalem al-Quds, but Palestinians have won the round as they have effectively confronted the Israeli police in a bid to resist eviction and expulsion orders.