Jewish settlers with assault rifles slung over their shoulders moved into two buildings in a crowded Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday, sparking clashes between Israeli troops and Arab residents.
Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, condemned the incident, saying it proved Israel was more interested in expanding settlements than in making peace.
Israel says it will never relinquish the sector of the city it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. In recent years, hawkish Jewish groups, with the backing of hardline governments and foreign investors, have bought several properties in east Jerusalem to strengthen Israel’s hold there.
At daybreak on Wednesday, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews lugged boxes, chairs, tables and potted plants into buildings in the Silwan neighbourhood of east Jerusalem. A van packed with sofas and couches arrived, and settlers hauled a water tank on to the roof of one building and set up a generator.
Settlers said eight families are to move into the buildings — a seven-storey apartment building and a smaller house — which investors bought for them. The Arab owner of the smaller house said his property was seized unlawfully.
After settlers moved into the two buildings on Wednesday morning, clashes erupted in a narrow alley. Palestinian residents began throwing stones from rooftops.
Police and soldiers commandeered three nearby buildings, stationing themselves on rooftops and firing tear gas at the demonstrators. Troops also entered four other Palestinian homes, pulling young men out. Police beat one Palestinian man with a baton and handcuffed six others, dragging them away.
Nine Palestinians were arrested for stone-throwing, and six police officers were hurt, police spokesperson Shmulik Ben-Ruby said.
At least three Palestinians were seen bleeding.
The settlers said they were members of the Committee for the Renewal of the Yemenite Village in Shiloah — Shiloah is Hebrew for Silwan — and that their aim was to re-establish a Jewish presence in the neighbourhood.
Daniel Luria, a spokesperson for the committee, said a community of Jews from Yemen had been established in the area 122 years ago. In 1938, the last of the families were forced to leave during Arab riots, he said.
”Sixty-six years later we have returned Jewish families to the area with the idea of living side-by-side with the Arabs,” Luria said, adding that three of the eight families are of Yemenite heritage so ”it’s really closing a circle”.
An adviser of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin, said the Jewish group had the right to live where it wanted in the city.
”There are no Jerusalem settlements … all of Jerusalem is under Israeli sovereignty since 1967,” he said. ”It is not so-called occupied land.”
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat blamed Israel’s government for supporting settlers.
”[The settlers] have taken the law into their own hands before; they are taking the law into their hands now with the assistance of the government,” he said.
Early on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers destroyed the Hazon David settlement outpost — a tent and a shack used as a synagogue — near Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Several hours later, about 300 settlers trying to rebuild the outpost clashed with security forces. David Wilder, a settler spokesperson, said a teenager was kicked in the head and was on his way to the hospital.
Under the ”road map” peace plan, Israel is supposed to take down dozens of unauthorised outposts and Palestinians must dismantle violent groups.
However, the plan has stalled and Sharon has proposed unilaterally pulling out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
Sharon said on Tuesday he would hold a binding referendum within his hardline Likud Party on the plan.
A no vote, at a time when Sharon is also under investigation for alleged corruption, would leave him wounded politically, while a yes vote could be the final blow to Likud hard-liners who oppose territorial concessions.
A poll published on Wednesday in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper showed 51% of Likud members support the plan, while 36% opposed it. The Dahaf Institute poll questioned 507 Likud members and had a 4,4% margin of error.
”I will bring these things to a democratic test,” Sharon said of his plan.
Likud officials said the vote could take place in May, after Sharon returns from a trip to Washington, where he is scheduled to meet United States President George Bush on April 14. Three US envoys were to arrive on Wednesday in Israel, seeking more information about the plan.
On Tuesday, the sponsors of the road map — the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia — met in Brussels to discuss eviving the proposal, diplomatic sources said. They expressed qualified support for Sharon’s Gaza plan, as long as it leads to further pullbacks and is in keeping with the road map blueprint, the sources said.
The pullout would mark a reversal for Sharon, who has long been a driving force behind expanding Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
In 1987, he moved into an apartment in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, at a time when he served as a Cabinet minister. But he has rarely used it.
The group that moved into the Silwan neighbourhood on Wednesday said the two buildings were bought by private investors interested in reviving the Yemenite village and in buying homes near Jerusalem’s most hotly disputed holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
The larger building appeared empty, but Silwan resident Awad Rajbi said he bought the smaller home six months ago and was living elsewhere as he renovated it.
”They took my home away by force, I bought this with my money,” Rajbi said.
Rajbi’s brother, Akram, said they were looking for the man who sold the house. Rajbi alleged the man sold the house a second time to Jewish settlers and flew to the US late on Tuesday.
”Last night the settlers came. They say they have a contract. They say they bought this house,” Akram Rajbi said.
Ben-Ruby, the police spokesperson, said the Jewish group had a contract showing it bought the house in 2001.
”We have sent both sides to court, and the court will decide whom the house belongs to,” he said. — Sapa-AP