MIDEAST-PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL/SILWAN Jewish settlers move in to Palestinian homes in Old City's shadow

Record ID: 398716

  • Title: MIDEAST-PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL/SILWAN Jewish settlers move in to Palestinian homes in Old City's shadow
  • Date: 30th September 2014
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 30, 2014) (REUTERS) ISRAELI FORCES ARRIVING AT SILWAN NEIGHBOURHOOD IN EAST JERUSALEM EXTERIOR OF HOME TAKEN BY JEWISH SETTLERS EARLIER IN THE DAY VARIOUS OF DAMAGED DOOR AND LOCK BROKEN HANDLE ON FLOOR BROKEN WINDOW EXTERIOR OF HOME VARIOUS OF 62-YEAR-OLD KHALED KARAEEN (RIGHT) WHO LIVES IN THE COMPOUND, SITTING IN THE COURTYARD IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE
  • Embargoed: 15th October 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAH9A0Z0T887FJS1QJ1Y1RK1O0
  • Story Text: Palestinians on Tuesday (September 30) condemned a group of Jewish settlers who moved under the protection of Israeli police into seven homes in a Palestinian neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem earlier in the day.
    The homes in Silwan, which sits in the shadow of Jerusalem's Old City, were purchased by Elad, a pro-settlement group that uses funds from Jewish supporters in the United States and elsewhere to buy properties in Palestinian districts.
    Tuesday's move was the largest purchase of homes in Silwan since the process began in the neighbourhood in 1986, taking to 26 the number of settler-owned properties, local officials said. Around 90 settler families, totalling 500 people, live in Silwan among some 50,000 Palestinians. Israeli police protect them.
    Israel annexed East Jerusalem after its capture in the 1967 war, when the West Bank and Gaza Strip were also seized. Citing historical and Biblical roots, Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognised internationally.
    Residents of Silwan, a tightly packed neighbourhood of winding streets on the side of a hill, acknowledged on Tuesday there was little they could do to stop settlers from moving in.
    In the latest case, all of the homes were purchased legally by Elad via intermediaries, usually Palestinian brokers who buy the properties from local families at inflated prices.
    At one house, Khaled Karaeen, 62 and a father of six, sat in the courtyard of his home, in front of the purchased property. The yellow door which opens onto Karaeen's courtyard, appeared damaged by what he said was a violent move.
    "At five o'clock in the morning, I heard sounds so I looked out of the house windows and I saw the settlers, coming down through the doors like devils, and they caught my son and hit him. I joined the fight and they hit me too. At that time, there were two people inside (the house) after they broke the door. We couldn't bring them outside and after an hour the police came and they wanted to arrest us," Karaeen told Reuters.
    By Tuesday afternoon the settlers had moved a washing machine into the property and an Israeli-brand shower wash was visible on the sill of the bathroom window.
    The family, which declined to be interviewed, had barricaded themselves inside, blocking the yellow door. Karaeen sat three metres (10 feet) away.
    Relatives said one of Karaeen's sons had sold a dwelling inside the grounds of the family home to a Palestinian broker about a year ago for 1.2 million shekels ($300,000), around twice as much as the property was probably worth.
    The broker had then sold the apartment to Elad, which then rented it out to the settlers, who moved in during the early hours of Tuesday morning with the help of Israeli police.
    Karaeen's brother said he had spoken by phone to the son, who had fled to the north of Israel.
    Looming over the house, barely 300 metres (yards) away, is the southern wall of the Old City, with the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, sitting on top. Jews also revere the site as the Temple Mount.
    Silwan has long been an objective for settler organisations, with many Jews believing that the ancient City of David once stood where the Palestinian neighbourhood now stands.
    Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state and say Israeli settlements undermine that objective.
    In the past, Palestinians found to have sold their homes to settler organisations have been killed.
    In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Nabil abu Rdeineh, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned Tuesday's events as "dangerous" and urged the U.S. to take action against Israel.
    "The Palestinian presidency condemns this dangerous settlement action. Unfortunately that is being supported by the American administration after they criticised President Abu Mazen's (Mahmoud Abbas') speech. We ask the American administration to press Israel to stop these settlement actions in a serious manner, not only publicly which means nothing but to take the action needed for that," he said in reference to Abbas' speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday (September 26) where the president accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.
    Abbas told the General Assembly there was no value in peace talks with Israel unless the goal was ending its 47-year occupation of the Palestinian territories within a "firm timetable". He said the Palestinians and the Arab Group had been working on a draft UN Security Council resolution "to push forward the efforts to achieve peace".
    The U.S. State Department described Abbas' remarks as 'disappointing' and 'counterproductive'.
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