Israeli police have been negotiating with a Palestinian man who has taken refuge on the roof of his house with a barrel of gasoline in the Sheikh Jara district of East Jerusalem, as his family is in danger of being evicted.
Mohamed Salhiya has taken refuge on the roof of his house with a barrel of gasoline, said an AFP correspondent, shortly after police arrived at the scene who tried to evict his family, which is threatened with eviction from 2017.
The Israeli police and the Jerusalem City Hall issued a joint statement saying they had gone to the scene to comply with the eviction order, as the house where the house is located has been given for the construction of a school for the children of the neighborhood.
The police explained that “negotiations” were taking place at the spot with the residents who remained at home.
In East Jerusalem, the part of the city annexed by Israel in 1967, hundreds of Palestinian families living in the area for decades face the threat of eviction.
In May last year, demonstrations in support of these families in Sheikh Jara had escalated into clashes with settlers and Israeli police, sparking a new round of tension between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
According to Laura Wharton, a city councilor in Sheikh Jara today, “the school could be rebuilt without evicting the families.” “There is enough space,” he told AFP.
More than 300,000 Palestinians and 210,000 Israelis currently live in East Jerusalem, the latter in illegal settlements under international law.
Under Israeli law, if Jews can prove that their family lived in East Jerusalem before the 1948 war and the creation of the state of Israel, they can claim “their property” back.
However, there is no corresponding law for Palestinians who lost their property during the war, and Palestinian families claim to have legally purchased their property from the Jordanian authorities who controlled East Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967.
Seven Palestinian families from Sheikh Jara have appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn their expulsion decision.
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