In the last month Palestinians in Jerusalem continued to
face ongoing violence and settler takeovers of their homes. As Israeli forces
abducted and arrested children in the Silwan area, an order by the municipal
court could force a family to “share” a room in their home with
settlers. Meanwhile, a United Nations expert called Israeli policies in East
Jerusalem consistent with characteristics of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

In Ras al-Amoud, an Israeli court recently ruled that a
Palestinian family will have to move out of one room in their home as Israeli
settlers and an armed Israeli guard could move in in a matter of weeks.

After 11 years of legal battles, the Hamdallah family was
ordered to move their furniture and belongings out of one of their bedrooms and
their front yard. Their home is next to settler houses in the illegal
settlement colony of Maaleh Zeitim.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that American billionaire
and settler financier Irving Moskowitz waged the long battle against the
Hamdallahs in court, claiming that he “acquired” the land from an
ultra-Orthodox Jewish organization. The Hamdallah family has lived in the home
since 1952; however the Jerusalem district court ruled in 2005 that they had to
“evacuate parts of the home built after 1989” (“Palestinian
family ordered to share East Jerusalem home with Israelis,” 10 March
2011).

Haaretz added that Moskowitz’s lawyer “convinced the
bailiff’s office that this includes one bedroom and the front yard.”

Sixteen members of the family live in the home. Speaking to
Haaretz, Khaled Hamdallah said that three persons live in the room slated for
evacuation. “We don’t know what to do,” he told Haaretz. “I
don’t even care anymore. I feel like dying. They want to throw us out
completely. The police is with them, the judges are with them. So what’s the
point?”

Shlomo Lecker, the lawyer representing the Hamdallah family,
managed to delay the settler’s move-in date for one month. But if the legal
team fails to overturn the court’s ruling, the family could very well face
sharing their home with armed settlers — or make the decision to leave the home
altogether.

Speaking to the UK Guardian newspaper, Lecker said that
“[t]his group of settlers are very determined to get the family out and
they are trying every possible trick” (“Palestinian family in East
Jerusalem told to make way for Jewish settlers,” 10 March 2011).

Meanwhile, in the village of Silwan, just outside the gates
of the Old City, residents face regular attacks by Israeli forces as popular
resistance continues against settler takeovers of homes.

According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center (SILWANIC),
Israeli forces “indiscriminately fired” tear gas in two areas of
Silwan on 26 March, during another round of intense clashes spurred by the
presence of Israeli settlers and soldiers.

SILWANIC also reported that “[h]eavy numbers of Israeli
forces have moved in to Baten al-Hawa and Bir Ayyub districts of Silwan after
several Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Palestinian house occupied by
Israeli soldiers in Baten al-Hawa” (“Heavy military presence in
Silwan after Molotov cocktails thrown,” 26 March 2011).

The report added that live ammunition was fired by soldiers,
though no injuries were sustained. Saturday’s clashes followed sweeping arrests
by Israeli soldiers the day before, in which nine Palestinians were arrested
from their homes (“Israeli forces carry out massive dawn raid,” 25
March 2011).

On 18 March, Ma’an News Agency reported that Palestinian
residents of Silwan set fire to a house taken over by settlers. An Israeli
border guard was burned and hospitalized, the report added (“Palestinians
burn settler home in Jerusalem,” 18 March 2011).

Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel
bullets, Ma’an reported. During the clashes, a Palestinian photojournalist was
also injured and taken to the hospital.

Palestinian children targeted in Silwan

On 14 March, Israeli police forces attempted to arrest three
Palestinian children from their homes in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood of Silwan
(“Israeli police attempt to seize children from their home in Wadi
Hilweh,” 15 March 2011).

The police eventually left, the report stated, but ordered
the children’s uncle to bring the children to the police station for
“investigation.” After interrogation, “the children were
released from police custody at a bail of 20,000 shekels [US $5,620] per
child,” SILWANIC added.

It has been a regular policy of Israeli police to target,
arrest, detain and interrogate children in Silwan.

Days earlier, SILWANIC reported, Israeli police arrested
four boys in an early-morning raid on 9 March, charging the youth with
stone-throwing.

Silwan activist Ibrahim Aoudeh was released from Israeli
detention on 10 March after being jailed for ten months. Twenty-two-year-old
Aoudeh was arrested and jailed on charges of participating in clashes. SILWANIC
reported that a celebratory procession wound its way through Silwan as local
leaders gave speeches condemning Israeli policies while insisting residents
“remain steadfast in their resistance to the settler colonization of the
village” (“Ibrahim Aoudeh released, brother Mohammed remains behind
bars,” 10 March 2011).

Ibrahim’s brother, Mohammed, also an activist, remains in an
Israeli jail after being arrested for his participation in recent clashes. Their
younger brother, 10-year-old Muslem, has been the target of Israeli police
forces over the last year. Last March, Muslem was abducted in the middle of the
night by Israeli police, who interrogated him.

More recently, Muslem was abducted again by Israeli forces
in February, along with several other boys, and he was beaten so severely that
his skull was fractured and his entire body sustained serious bruises, SILWANIC
reported (“”How can they criminalize me? I’m ten years old.” The
plight of Muslim Aoudeh,” 6 March 2011).

Qatanna

Ma’an News Agency reported that two Palestinians were
injured and five were detained on 23 March when an Israeli patrol entered the
village of Qatanna and opened fire with rubber-coated steel bullets. All of
those detained were 15 and 16 years old, Ma’an added (“Clashes near
Jerusalem: 2 injured, 5 detained,” 23 March 2011).

70 Palestinian homes demolished since January

The United Nations issued a report on 21 March that showed a
two-fold increase in the numbers of house demolitions in the West Bank,
including occupied East Jerusalem, since the beginning of the year, Ma’an News
Agency reported (“UN: Massive increase in home demolitions,” 22 March
2011).

The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) “recorded
70 demolitions since the start of 2011, displacing 105 Palestinians, of whom 43
were under the age of 18. The demolitions were carried out across the West Bank
and East Jerusalem, and ordered by Israeli police, municipal officials and by
mandate of the Civil Administration,” Ma’an reported.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said that in occupied East
Jerusalem, the Israeli government has zoned approximately 13 percent of the
city for Palestinian construction, “most of which is already incredibly
built up … They are forced to build without a permit.”

Last month, the High Commissioner for Human Rights
“described this as discriminatory,” he stated. Gunness labeled home
demolitions as a “triple humiliation, with families forced to build
illegally, faced with the demolition of their homes, a process that all too
often occurs in front of the faces of their children.”

Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in
the occupied Palestinian territories, delivered a report to the UN Human Rights
Council on 21 March in which he described Israeli policy in East Jerusalem as
ethnic cleansing.

The council released an abridged version of Falk’s
statements, and reported that he “reminded the Council that the
fundamental right of Palestinian self-determination was constantly abridged by
Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank … The death
of over 1,000 children, the continued building of illegal settlements, and the
ill treatment of prisoners were barbarities that could not continue”
(“Human Rights Council holds interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur
on situation of human rights in Occupied Palestinian Territories,” 21
March 2011).

Falk stated that the International Court of Justice should
be called upon to define what it means for Israel “to continue an
occupation with characteristics that were associated with colonialism,
apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”

Israel has refused to allow Richard Falk to enter the
country to continue his mandate as UN Special Rapporteur. He told the council
that he plans to attempt to enter in April anyways, and hopes that the Israeli
government will allow his entry into the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

This was a report from The Electronic Intifada.