Citizens of Silwan hold outdoor prayers to raise voice against Israeli evictions

Dozens of Palestinian citizens of the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan performed the weekly Friday prayer outdoors today to raise their voice against Israel’s plans to evict native families from their homes in the neighborhood in favor of Israeli settler organizations.

 

Following the prayers, the worshipers held a vigil in protest of Israel’s racist policies against the Palestinian population of the city, which include forceful evictions and self-demolition of homes under various pretexts.

 

According to unofficial estimates, about 1,250 Palestinians in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah are facing an imminent threat of eviction from their homes in favor of Israeli settlers.

 

More than 700,000 Palestinians were driven out or expelled from their homes by Israeli militias in 1948, when Israel was declared as an independent state. Thousands of Palestinians were further displaced in the Six-Day War in 1967 when Israel captured East Jerusalem.

 

Silwan, home to about 33,000 Palestinians, is located outside the walls of the Old City and barely 5km from Sheikh Jarrah neighourhood in occupied Jerusalem, where protests against planned expulsions led to Israeli violence against Palestinians and the 11-day aggression on Gaza last May.

 

Since the 1980s, Israel has been moving Jewish settlers to the neighborhood, and currently several hundred settlers live there in heavily protected settlement compounds, at the expense of Palestinian families who have been forcibly displaced.

 

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

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