Israeli forces suppress a stand of solidarity condemning attempts displacing Palestinians in Silwan

Jerusalem24 – Today, Wednesday, the Israeli occupation forces cracked down on the participants in a solidarity stand condemning the attempts to displace the residents of the Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan in occupied Jerusalem.

Eyewitnesses said that those forces attacked the participants in the stand that was organized in conjunction with the consideration of the Central Occupation Court in Jerusalem regarding the appeal of the neighborhood residents against their displacement, and beat them, before arresting one of them.

According to eyewitnesses, these forces arrested the 16-year-old boy, Sultan Sarhan, after beating him on the face with the hands and rifle butts, while he was in front of the court and in solidarity with the people.

They indicated that the occupation forces intensified their military presence in the vicinity of the court, and placed iron barricades to prevent the solidarity activists from reaching the court’s headquarters.

It is noteworthy that the Central Occupation Court in Jerusalem is holding a session today to consider the petition of Palestinian families in the Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, against decisions to displace them from their homes for the benefit of settlers.

Residents of Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan are facing the threat of eviction and displacement, after the Israeli Supreme Court allowed the settler group Ateret Cohenim to continue to expel 800 Palestinians, claiming that their homes were built on land owned by Jews before the Nakba of the Palestinian people in 1948, despite From the judges ’admission that the organization’s procedures for seizing the land were flawed and raised questions about the legality of transferring the land to the right-wing association.

The settlement association, which in 2001 obtained the right to administer the properties of the Jewish association that claims to have owned the land in the past (before 1948), began in September 2015 to hand over the notices to the neighborhood’s residents, and the residents in turn responded to the calls that were made against them.

More than one judicial decision was issued by the occupation, reconciliation and central courts, claiming the right of “Ateret Cohenim” to own land with an area of 5 dunams and 200 square meters, and hundreds of Palestinians reside in it.

The town of Silwan is considered the southern garrison of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its mihrab, as the occupation tries to uproot the residents through confiscating or demolishing homes, seizing lands, targeting their cemeteries, and destroying and razing the Bab al-Rahma cemetery.

In addition to Silwan, the 500 Jerusalemites who live in 28 houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in favor of settlement associations are threatened, after years of collusion with the occupation courts, which recently issued a decision against seven families to displace them, despite the fact that the neighborhood residents are the actual and legal owners of the land.