East Jerusalem: violence in the district of Sheikh Jarrah, about thirty injured
Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in the sensitive neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem on February 13, 2022. AFP - AHMAD GHARABLI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Clashes opposed Palestinian demonstrators to the Israeli police on Sunday.
At issue: the visit of an Israeli far-right deputy to this particularly sensitive area of the city which has already seen numerous demonstrations against Israeli colonization.
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Thirty-one Palestinians were injured, including several hospitalized, according to a latest report from the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israeli police used water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
Twelve people were arrested.
Itamar Ben Gvir, a member of the far-right "Religious Zionism" group and known for his inflammatory statements about the Palestinians, went to Sheikh Jarrah during the day to open an "office" and support the Jewish inhabitants of the neighborhood in following a suspected arson attack on a house where a Jewish family lives.
Before his visit, the deputy had accused the police on Saturday of not having reacted.
“
If the terrorists tried to burn a Jewish family alive without the police reacting, I would come to the scene
,” he said, asking that the police “
take care of the safety of the
Jewish residents”.
Several of the deputy's supporters joined him in the neighborhood, chanting "
Death to terrorists
".
The "office" of the deputy dismantled
On the other side, a group of Israelis opposed to the lawmaker circulated an online petition calling on people to come to Sheikh Jarrah to support the Palestinians.
A fight broke out between Arieh King, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, and Ahmad Tibi, an Arab Israeli MP who came to Sheikh Jarrah to express his solidarity with the Palestinians.
Itamar Ben Gvir accused the security forces in the evening of having violently dismantled the tent he had set up as an “office”, saying however to “
stay here to sleep tonight
”.
Sporadic clashes continued late in the evening in the neighborhood.
“
These irresponsible provocations and any other act of escalation in this sensitive sector will inflame tensions and must end
,” the European Union (EU) representation in the Palestinian Territories wrote on Twitter.
More than 300,000 Palestinians and 210,000 Israeli settlers live today in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part occupied by Israel since 1967 and then annexed.
The Palestinians aspire to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state, while Israel considers the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital.
Hamas warns Israel
The Palestinian Authority condemned the visit of MP Itamar Ben Gvir, calling it "a
provocation threatening to inflame the situation which may become difficult to control
".
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, warned Israel of "
the consequences of the repeated attacks on the neighborhood of
Sheikh Jarrah
".
In May, demonstrations in support of Palestinian families threatened with eviction in Sheikh Jarrah for the benefit of Jewish settlers degenerated into clashes with Jewish settlers and the Israeli police.
Hundreds of Palestinians had been injured.
In the aftermath, Hamas launched salvoes of rockets towards Israel which replied, violence which gave rise to an
eleven-day war
between the Palestinian movement and the Israeli army.
In recent years, the Israeli colonization of the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, but also of East Jerusalem, has intensified with real estate projects financed by the government, or initiatives by settler organizations to buy houses from Palestinians, or even expropriate them.
Illegal under international law, settlement has continued under every Israeli government since 1967.
►
To read also: Israel approves the construction of 3,144 housing units for settlers in the West Bank
(With
AFP
)
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