Clashes erupted Sunday between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in the sensitive Sheikh Jara district of East Jerusalem following a visit by an Israeli far-right lawmaker who rekindled tensions.
Fourteen Palestinians, including a child, were injured, five of them in hospital, in clashes in which Israeli police used water pumps and rubber bullets to disperse protesters, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israeli police said “violent clashes” in the Sheikh Jara district, which has become a symbol of the struggle against Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem, and the arrest of 12 “riots”.
More than 300,000 Palestinians and 210,000 Israeli settlers now live in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, which was later annexed by Israel.
The Palestinians aspire to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state, while Israel considers the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital.
Itamar Ben Gwir, a member of parliament for the far-right Religious Zionist party known for his inflammatory statements about the Palestinians, went to Sheikh Jarah later in the day to open an “office” and support the Jewish people in the area.
Prior to his visit, Gwir accused police on Saturday of failing to respond to an alleged arson attack on a Jewish family home in the neighborhood.
“If the terrorists tried to burn a Jewish family alive without the police reacting, I will come on the spot,” he said, asking the police to “take care of the safety of the (Jewish) residents.”
– “Challenge” –
Supporters of the MP accompanied him to the neighborhood shouting “Death to terrorists”.
On the other hand, a group of Israelis who oppose the MP posted a request on the internet calling on the people to go to Sheikh Jara to support the Palestinians.
Quarrel erupted between Arieh King, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, and Ahmad Tibbi, an Arab Israeli lawmaker who went to Sheikh Jara to express his solidarity with the Palestinians.
Gwyr accused the security forces on Sunday night of violently dismantling the tent he had set up as an “office”, but said he “would stay to sleep there tonight”.
Sporadic clashes continued late into the night in the neighborhood.
“These irresponsible provocations and any other escalation in this sensitive area will provoke tensions and must stop,” the European Union Delegation to the Palestinian Territories wrote on Twitter.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the visit of Ben Gvir, calling it a “provocation that threatens to provoke a situation that is difficult to control.”
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
