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50 Palestinians evicted from their Jerusalem homes
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 02 - 08 - 2009


Israeli police evicted two Palestinian
families in east Jerusalem on Sunday, then allowed Jewish
settlers to move into their homes, drawing criticism from
Palestinians, the United Nations and the State Department, AP reported.
Police arrived before dawn and cordoned off part of the
Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah before forcibly removing
more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the
U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees.
U.N. staff later saw vehicles bringing Jewish settlers to
move into the homes, he said.
Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's Supreme
Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab
families had been living there illegally.
Gunness said the families had lived in the homes for more
than 50 years.
The status of east Jerusalem is one of the most explosive
issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel took
control of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and
annexed it, a move not recognized by any other country.
Since then, Israel has to boosted the Jewish presence
there, building neighborhoods where about 180,000 Jews
live. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital
of their hoped-for state.
Organizations linked to the Jewish West Bank settlement
movement also have bought properties inside Palestinian
neighborhoods in Jerusalem and moved Israelis in.
About 270,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem, or 35
percent of the city's total population of 760,000.
The international community has pressured Israel to
refrain from evicting Palestinians and building new homes
for Jews in east Jerusalem, saying such moves hamper
peacemaking efforts.
State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said such
actions in east Jerusalem constitute violations of Israel's
obligations under U.S.-backed «road map» peace plan.
«Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge
the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by
the international community,» she said in a statement.
Robert Serry, the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle
East Peace Process, called Sunday's evictions «totally
unacceptable.»
«These actions heighten tensions and undermine
international efforts to create conditions for fruitful
negotiations to achieve peace,» he said in a statement.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also condemned the
move.
«While Israeli authorities have promised the American
administration that home demolitions, home evictions and
other provocations against Palestinian Jerusalemites would
be stopped, what we've seen on the ground is completely the
opposite,» he said in a statement.
Khawla Hanoun, 35, who lived in one of the homes, said
police ordered her and 16 family members to leave the house
before dawn and forced them out at gunpoint when they
refused.
«Now our future is in the streets,» she said. «We will
remain steadfast until we return home. By any method, we
must go back home.»


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