Evictions In Jerusalem Continue, Israeli Police Engage In Clashes With Palestinians

JAKARTA - Clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli police, after a Palestinian shop building in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwa was torn down, Tuesday, June 29 local time.

A bulldozer escorted by Israeli police razed the Harbi Rajabi butcher shop in the Al-Aqsa Mosque neighborhood, Islam's third holiest site and the most sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The shop is one of at least eight properties residents say will be demolished. Residents say many of the buildings have been there for decades, even from before 1967.

Instead, Israeli authorities say shops and houses in the area have been built illegally. The plan, the location will be used as a park.

Palestinian medics said 13 people were injured in Tuesday's confrontation in Silwan. Police said two officers were injured by stone-throwers and three people were arrested for disorderly behavior and assault.

Mahmoud Basit, who works as a butcher, said 14 family members depend on the income from there.

"We have no other way to support our family," Basit told Reuters, adding that he had to look for a new job from scratch.

Separately, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King said about 20 buildings in Silwan, which Israel calls Shiloach by the Hebrew name, had received demolition orders. Meanwhile, 60 other buildings in the area he said also violated Israel's zoning laws.

Palestinians in Silwan say it is almost impossible to get a building permit. They saw a demolition designed to drive them out of Jerusalem. Denying this, King said the city government had approved hundreds of new Palestinian homes in Silwan.

The city government gave Palestinians until June 28 to demolish the building themselves.

"The land will be cleared to make way for parks and public buildings. Silwan's biblical links make it an important historical site," said King.

Nader Abu Diab, who also received demolition orders, lives in fear of a knock on the door from the city inspector.

"My grandchildren ask me questions and I can't answer them. They are children. What can I tell them? That they are going to destroy our house?" lamented Abu Diab.

His brother, Fakhri Abu Diab, said he had applied seven times for Israeli permits to expand his house in Silwan, but was always denied. He added that more than a hundred Palestinians could become homeless if the current eviction process continued.

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