The Israeli Supreme Court was accused this week of facilitating a “cleansing of Palestinians” in Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem, following a decision to reject an appeal brought by residents threatened with eviction.
According to Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem, the court decision “was written without addressing the context whatsoever”, including the role of the settler organization dedicated to “driv[ing] Palestinians out of their homes”, and “as though the Court was not sanctioning the broadest move to dispossess Palestinians since 1967”.
#Israel to Evict 700 Palestinians from #Silwan (VIDEO) https://t.co/j6kM18ymz3 @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/ddZcTRwHyp
— Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) November 22, 2018
B’Tselem said:
“The judgment proves, yet again, that the Israeli High Court [i.e. Supreme Court] gives its seal of approval to almost any infringement of Palestinians’ rights by the Israeli authorities.”
Israeli NGO Ir Amim, meanwhile, said the court ruling – as well as other developments – “threaten to pave the way for expedited settler takeovers in the most highly contested part of Jerusalem”. Taken as a whole, these legal and political steps “could have disastrous results for Palestinians living in the radical settler hotbeds of Batan Al-Hawa, Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah”.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
