OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A lawyer said Wednesday an Israeli court in Occupied Jerusalem ruling that dozens of home demolitions in a flashpoint
Palestinian neighborhood should be frozen for six months was
"progress," but not "victory."
اضافة اعلان
Israel had ordered the demolition of around 100 homes in
Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood on the edge of the Old City in occupied
East Jerusalem, claiming they were built illegally on public land.
Monday's court order froze most of those demolition orders
until February 2022, while also allowing 16 homes to be razed immediately.
"I have reached the conclusion that there is space to
grant a specific extension," wrote Judge Sigal Albo of the Jerusalem Court
for Local Affairs in the decision.
Lawyer Ziad Kawar, representing residents in the Al-Bustan
area of Silwan, told AFP the ruling was "progress" but "not a
victory." He said he would appeal to foreign diplomats to put pressure on
Israel over home demolitions.
Kawar said his clients were applying for retroactive
permission for their homes, which he said they built on their own private
property without permission.
"It is not possible to get permits there," Kawar
said. Palestinians say the city rejects nearly all of their building permit
applications.
Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the
Six-Day War in 1967, and later annexed it in a move not recognized
internationally.
Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their
future state.
In the 1980s, settlers began moving into Silwan.
Israelis have said they hope to build a park devoted to the
biblical King David in Al-Bustan.
Israeli settlers regard Jerusalem, east and west, as the
eternal capital of the Jewish people.
Today, several hundred settlers live in Silwan under heavy
security, among about 50,000 Palestinians.
This week's court decision came after Israel's supreme court
delayed ruling on the eviction of four families in East Jerusalem's Sheikh
Jarrah neighborhood.
The fate of the families in Sheikh Jarrah sparked tensions
in May that spiraled into deadly armed conflict between Israel and Hamas
militants in the Gaza Strip.
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