Palestinians, 50-year residents of East Jerusalem home, evicted by court order
Shamasneh family calls it a 'pure injustice,' but Israel says it's merely enforcing existing law
Israeli police evicted a Palestinian family from a home in east Jerusalem Tuesday to make way for new Jewish tenants who claimed ownership.
Municipality officials backed by armed police officers enforced a court order to remove the six-member Shamasneh family from a home claimed by heirs of a Jewish family forced to abandon it in 1948 when it came under Jordanian control.
Israel took control of the area after the 1967 war and continued existing rental arrangements with Arab tenants. But a law allowing Jews to reclaim former homes or repurchase them have set up such conflicts.
The armed officers were seen escorting the Shamasnehs out of the home, with the elderly Ayoub Shamasneh carried out by his relatives.
Shamasneh, 79, said his legal case was still pending. "How can they do this to us?" he said.
His wife, Fahima, 75, called it "pure injustice" that after more than 50 years in the house, they "throw us out in the street."
Palestinians allege the evictions aim to increase East Jerusalem's Jewish population and change the area's demography, making it harder to divide the city in any eventual peace deal. Israel says it is merely enforcing the law.
Shortly after the eviction, Jewish settlers entered the house accompanied by a private security guard. An Israeli flag hung in the entranceway to the kitchen.
Yonatan Yosef, a spokesman for the Jewish residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, said he was pleased to see another home "redeemed."
"Another house in the Land of Israel, another house in Jerusalem, close to the Western Wall, close to the Old City, close to the Temple Mount, which is the heart of the people of Israel," he said. "We hope that all the houses in this neighbourhood ... will return to Jewish hands."
Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians claim those territories for their hoped-for state.
West Bank areas targeted for redevelopment
Also on Tuesday, Israel's Shin Bet security service said it arrested a senior Palestinian security official for inciting to violence on his Facebook page. It said Muhammad al-Sawiti had posted a picture of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, called for attacks against Jews and praised those who had carried them out.
Israel has lately been aiming to crack down on Palestinian incitement it blames for sparking a two-year-old wave of violence. The Palestinians say the attacks, which have lessened of late, are a result of 50 years of occupation.
Overnight, Israeli troops shut down a printing shop in Ramallah it accused of producing "inciting and terror-related material." Ali Obedat, the shop's owner, denied the charge.
An Israeli human rights group also warned the country's leaders Tuesday that reported plans to demolish two Palestinian communities in the Israeli-controlled West Bank would constitute a war crime for which they would bear personal liability.
B'Tselem said it was trying to "stop the commission of such a crime" with its written warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and others.
Lieberman told Israeli reporters last week that his ministry hopes to complete plans for evacuating the hamlets of Susiya and Khan al-Ahmar within a few months, arguing they were built "without authorization." Lieberman's office confirmed that he had made the remarks.
B'Tselem says this constitutes forcible transfer that is prohibited under international humanitarian law, which requires an occupier to protect those under its rule.