On Friday, the United Nations called on the Israeli authorities to stop deporting Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
This came in a press conference held by Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General, at the United Nations Permanent Headquarters in New York, he said that “A delegation from the United Nations agencies met earlier today with the Palestinian Salem family, who were informed by the Israeli authorities of evacuating their house, which they have lived in for 70 years, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Jerusalem.”
Salem’s family includes 6 children and an elderly mother, Fatima Salem. She is one of 218 Palestinian families comprising 970 people who live in the neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.
The statement emphasized that “under international humanitarian law, the occupying power is prohibited from forcibly deporting protected persons, regardless of the motive behind such deportation.”
Dujarric called on the Israeli authorities to “adopt the necessary steps to protect civilians, including Palestinian refugees.”
A state of extreme tension prevailed, “Sheikh Jarrah”, 8 days ago, after the extremist Israeli MP Itamar Ben Gvir, along with dozens of settlers, set up a tent as a parliamentary office in the neighbourhood.
Over the past few days, violations by the IOF and settlers in the neighbourhood left dozens of injuries and arrests of Palestinians.
Since 1956, 28 Palestinian refugee families settled in the “Sheikh Jarrah” neighbourhood after an agreement with the Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Development and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, while settlers claim that those houses were built on Israeli owned lands before 1948, which the Palestinians deny.
Dozens of Palestinian families in the occupied Jerusalem, especially in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, receive evict orders from their homes, in which they have resided for decades, to be given to settlers to occupy.
