Illegal Israeli Settlers Evict Elderly Ibrahim Salah, Wife from their
Beit Safafa Home, in East Jerusalem
Settlers take over Beit Safafa home
Published yesterday (updated) 04/05/2010 09:46
Jerusalem – Ma'an –
East Jerusalem residents of the Beit Safafa neighborhood said Israeli
police accompanied a group of illegal Israeli settlers into the area
Sunday night, where they took over a family home and set up dozens of
flags overnight.
Witnesses described a moderate police presence
entering the neighborhood south of the Old City. Officers reportedly
entered the home and forced the two elderly residents to evacuate the
building, after which at least a dozen settlers moved in.
Upon
the eviction of the family, one man described, "the settlers started
dancing in the yard," and immediately began installing strings of
Israeli flags around the building.
Muhammad Ibrahim Salah,
resident of a nearby building and son of the man evicted on Sunday, said
the eviction threatens the lives and livelihoods of at least 40 men,
women and children who live on family land around the targeted building.
He said the home is in the center of the family lands, where other
buildings belonging to the family also stand. Sahal explained that he
was worried about the fate of other buildings.
An Israeli police
spokesman said he would look into the report.
On 28 April,
residents said settlers evicted two elderly Palestinians from the Salah
family, with an order issued by the Israeli High Court. It was not
immediately clear whether the couple had moved back into the home, or if
a second family was targeted.
Hajj Ali Ibrahim Salah, 99, and
his wife Sheha Hassan Ali, 90, said they had lived in the home for their
entire married lives, noting settler court action "started in 1993, when
settlers first alleged that they bought the land where our house is
built."
The elderly man insisted that his late father bought the
home with valid legal papers.
Ongoing antagonism
In
October 2009, the Salah family reported being attacked by 12 settlers,
though Israeli media reports at the time said six while police said
three.
Witnesses said the settler group pulled up to the home in
a car, carrying an eviction order for the family home of Ali Ibrahim
Salah and his children - the same home evicted on Sunday night.
At the time, Salah said the buildings sheltered 55 residents, 30 of
which were under the age of 12 and include his children, Ismail,
Mohammad, Mahmoud, Ahmad. He said the settlers claimed they bought the
homes from its Armenian owners.
An argument erupted as the
settlers demanded the family get out of their home. One of the settlers,
reportedly all in their 50s, was armed with a gun, and fired on the
family members. Sources said between one and four Palestinians were
injured.
The Israeli online news site Ynet said the middle-aged
extremists fled the scene after the shooting, but were later found and
arrested.
An Israeli police spokesman had a different version of
the incident, saying, "Three Jewish people came to the home in Beit
Safafa to deliver the eviction order to the family then fighting
erupted. It seems one of the Jewish people opened fire with his personal
weapon and injured one of the Arab residents in the hand... then the
Jewish people fled the scene driving their car."
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