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Israel bowed to international pressure and delayed the eviction of several Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, as security services warned that their expulsion could further inflame some of the city’s worst violence. for years.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Sunday called for a postponement of a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for Monday that appeared to uproot dozens of Palestinian families living in Sheikh Jarrah’s neighborhood to make way for Israeli settlers.
Over the weekend, Israeli police beat hundreds of unarmed Palestinians and threw stun grenades at crowds (one fell in the prayer hall of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque) in an effort to control protests that went on. attract tens of thousands of Arabs.
Palestinians threw stones at police, lit fires and tore down barricades, while police loaded horses and used rubber bullets and water cannons on consecutive nights of clashes. Eighteen police officers were injured, Israel said. More than 300 Palestinians needed medical attention, Palestinian doctors said.
The Arab and Gulf nations condemned the actions of the Israeli security forces, while the US and EU allies expressed deep concerns. Anger was sparked by images of police using violence inside the mosque grounds, revered by Muslims such as Haram al-Sharif and Jews such as Temple Mount.
“What the Israeli police and special forces are doing, from rapes against the mosque to attacks on the faithful, is barbaric,” the Jordanian government, which has custody of the mosque, said on Sunday. Turkey called the actions “terrorism.”
The U.S. called on the Israeli government to “approach Sheikh Jarrah’s residents with compassion and respect,” while avoiding evictions, house demolitions and settlements.
The evictions stem from a long-running case involving a dispute over land ownership in the middle-class Arab quarter. A Jewish patronage legally bought the land during the Ottoman era in the 1870s, which was razed by the Jordanian government after it took control of East Jerusalem in the 1948 war.
Palestinian families facing eviction moved – also legally, according to the Jordanian government – to homes before Israel took East Jerusalem in 1967. Although Israeli law allows citizens to reclaim land lost in Jerusalem to Arabs during the war. of 1948, does not allow Palestinians to do the same.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel’s biblical ties to Jerusalem reinforce its claim to the city.
“We strongly reject the pressure not to build in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, these pressures have increased lately, “he said before a cabinet meeting.” In the same way that every people builds its capital and its capital, we also reserve the right to build Jerusalem and Jerusalem. “
Without naming the U.S., where progressive Democratic lawmakers and President Joe Biden’s administration called on Israel to show restraint, he added, “I also tell our best friends: Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.”
Israeli media reported that the attorney general added a secret document to his request for adjournment, citing the opinion of the security services that the evictions could stimulate spiraling violence.
Postponing the high court hearing buys Israel time to try to quell the growing anger of Palestinians enraged by the actions of Israeli police in Jerusalem’s old city during the holy month of Ramadan. These include restrictions on the former entrance of the Damascus Gate into the Muslim Quarter.
On Saturday, thousands of Arab Israelis were forced to walk to Jerusalem after police stopped buses of Muslim worshipers on the road, saying they were looking for agitators. Although some 90,000 worshipers were able to attend Saturday prayers at al-Aqsa, this was a much lower number than normal.
Jerusalem was preparing for more violence during Monday ‘s Jerusalem Day celebrations, as Israel commemorates the capture of the Holy City, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day War.
Although relatively peaceful in the rest of the country, it is an annual flashpoint between right-wing Arabs and Jewish settlers, marching through East Jerusalem under police protection and into the Muslim Quarter of the Old City as far as the Western Wall. . Police are studying whether the march will be reduced, local media reported.
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