Occupied Jerusalem: Residents of occupied east Jerusalem said armed Israeli guards moved into two buildings in the area before dawn on Monday — a step likely to raise already heightened tensions in the neighbourhood.
A similar move last month in the same neighbourhood of Silwan drew sharp condemnation from the US and created a high-profile spat with the Israeli regime.
Ateret Cohanim, an organisation that settles Jews in occupied east Jerusalem, said it facilitated the purchase of the two buildings from their Palestinian owners. Spokesman Daniel Lurie said the buildings contain nine apartment units and that Jewish families and religious studies students would soon move into the properties, immediately doubling the Jewish presence in that section of Silwan.
“For the Jewish people, having Jewish life back in an old Jewish neighbourhood is paramount,” said Lurie. The homes were purchased in an area where Jewish colonists from Yemen lived for a few decades before they left amid riots in the 1920s and 1930s.
Provocation
Late last month, Jewish colonists took over six properties in another area of Silwan, in the biggest colonist acquisition in the neighbourhood since Jews began moving there two decades ago. The White House called the move a provocation, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended it, saying residents may buy properties wherever they want.
But in a speech on Sunday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin criticised the way the homes were occupied. He is a supporter of Jews moving to the Palestinian neighbourhoods, but said occupied Jerusalem cannot be a city, “where sneaking into apartments is done in the cover of night.”
The Israelis occupied east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, Palestinians claim occupied east Jerusalem as their capital, while Israel says all of occupied Jerusalem will forever remain its “capital”. The international community, including the US, does not recognise Israel’s annexation of occupied east Jerusalem and says the area’s fate must be resolved through negotiations.
The Silwan neighbourhood where the homes were purchased is one of the city’s most sensitive areas.
Palestinians say the move is an effort to cement a Jewish presence in the neighbourhood while driving natives out.
“They’re all thieves,” said Umm Mohammad Shiyoukhi, a Palestinian who lives near one of the homes occupied on Monday. She hit the door of the home with a rubber squeegee and repeatedly jabbed it through a small hole in the glass window as an occupant inside tried to patch the hole with a rag.
Jewish real estate deals in the neighbourhood are often conducted in the shadows.
Residents claim that Palestinian brokers purchase homes from local residents and then quietly sell the homes to colonist organisations. Colonist groups say purchases are purposely kept confidential to protect Palestinian sellers from attacks by their neighbours.
Israeli lawyer Avi Segal said in an email that Kudram Ltd, a foreign real estate investment company he represents, legally purchased the two buildings, which were occupied on Monday with the help of the Ateret Cohanim group.
Segal said another real estate company he represents, Kendall Finance, purchased the six buildings that were occupied in Silwan late last month, a move that a different Jewish colonist organisation, the Elad Foundation, helped facilitate.
The lawyer did not respond to questions about the identity of both companies.
