Israeli Court Oks The Demolishing of 58 Palestinian Homes

An Israeli court Monday rejected an appeal by 58 Arab families in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem against a decision by the occupation authorities to demolish their homes, giving the go-ahead for the destruction.

A local spokesman, Fakhri Abu Diab, said in a statement that the displacement of the families of Wadi Yasoul quarter of Silwan marks the beginning of an assault on nearby areas, namely Al-Bustan and Wadi Hilweh, to ring the Old City of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque compound with Jewish settlements.

"Targeting Wadi Yasoul with mass demolitions marks a policy of demolition of entire (Arab) neighborhoods of Jerusalem," he said, adding that the occupation authority had effectively begun implementing the so-called "Holy Basin" scheme from Sheikh Jarrah (neighborhood) to Silwan.

The occupation authority first handed the families demolition orders in 2004, claiming their homes were illegally built, and the occupation court dismissed their appeal yesterday, Diab said.

Wadi Yasoul is located to the southwest of the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque in an area over 310 dunums with houses built before 1967 and 1948, and is home to 1,050 people. It is the southern flank of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, and if the occupation authority controls the neighborhood, it can move swiftly to other neighborhoods, he said.

Elsewhere in occupied Jerusalem, Israeli machinery demolished a construction materials store in the town of Anata, northeast of the city, under the pretext it was built without a license.