Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families Sunday from homes in Arab East Jerusalem and Jews moved in, despite pressure from Israel's main ally, the United States, to freeze settlements. Large numbers of police moved in at dawn into the homes in Sheikh Jarrah, an upmarket Arab district of the city and forcibly removed more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees. Police said they were acting on eviction orders issued by an Israeli court, which rejected an appeal against the eviction and upheld a settler organization's land ownership claim based on 19th-century documents. “We are thrown out and they let settlers inside our house. God is with us,” a Palestinian resident screamed at police as Jewish families entered the dwellings. The court ordered the eviction of 53 Palestinians, including 19 minors, following an appeal by the Nahalat Shimon International settler group which claimed Jewish settlers have title deeds for the properties, despite UN and Palestinian denials. Israel took the step in the midst of a dispute with the US over President Barack Obama's demand to halt Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory captured in a 1967 war. Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called the evictions “totally unacceptable”, noting that international mediators recently appealed to Israel to stop “provocative actions” in East Jerusalem. The British consulate, which is located in Sheikh Jarrah along with a number of other foreign missions, said it was “appalled” by the Israeli action. “The Israelis' claim that the imposition of extremist Jewish settlers into this ancient Arab neighborhood is a matter for the courts or the municipality is unacceptable,” it said in a statement. “These actions are incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace. We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda.” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel was demonstrating its “utter failure” to respect international law. “Israel, the occupying power, once again has shown its commitment to the settler organizations by evicting more than 50 Palestinians, many of them children, from the houses where they have lived for more than 50 years,” he said. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a state they hope to create in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asserting a biblical claim to Jerusalem, has said Jews have a right to live anywhere in the city. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 conflict, in a move that was not recognised internationally. Some 200,000 Jews live in East Jerusalem, alongside about 250,000 Palestinians. Settlers have already moved into six other buildings in Sheikh Jarrah, home to consulates and trendy restaurants. Armed men guard the stone houses where settlers have hoisted Israeli flags to assert Jewish dominance. Two weeks ago, the US State Department summoned Israel's ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, and told him plans to build another 20 homes for Jews in East Jerusalem should be suspended. Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel would take not orders over where Jews could live in the city. Talks last week between Netanyahu and Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, on the settlement dispute ended inconclusively.
