Days of Palestine – Jerusalem
Jewish settlers took over a Palestinian house on Monday in the East Jerusalem district of Silwan after its owner allegedly “leaked” it to the “Ateret Cohanim” settler group.
The house, which belonged to a Palestinian citizen called Moataz Halisi, is one of two apartments located in the Bab al-Maghariba area in Silwan, according to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center
A number of settlers stormed the house under police escort in the morning and embarked on installing security cameras around it as well as protective bars for its windows and barbed wire for its walls.
Last year, settlers seized many Palestinian homes in Silwan after the “Ateret Cohanim” settler group managed as always through several devious means, especially straw buyers, to lay its hands on them.
Ateret Cohanim is a government-backed Jewish group and religious institute located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It actively works on Judaizing the holy city and expelling its indigenous people, the Jerusalemites, from their homes.
Israel’s Judaization activities started in Silwan district and its nearby areas in 1996 when the Jewish neighborhood of Ma’ale Hazeitim emerged as a small settlement on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem, inside the Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.
In 2004, Ateret Cohanim started to extract Israeli court decisions that enabled it to seize Palestinian homes and property and displace local families in Silwan and other neighborhoods of the holy city.
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