Palestinian man threatens to set off gas tank as police evict family from East Jerusalem home

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Clashes erupted Monday as large police forces are evacuating an Israeli-Palestinian family their home in the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The Jerusalem Municipality has expropriated the land on which the family home is built in order to build a school.

The father of the family has barricaded himself on the roof with his children and is threatening to set off a gas tank, as a negotiating police team is trying to talk him off the roof.

Mohammed and Lital Salahiya have lived in a large compound in the neighborhood for decades; they say Mohammed bought the land before 1967. The government has said in the past that the land is part of the “Kerem Hamufti” plot that belonged to Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem. The land was confiscated according the Absentee Property Law, according to which the family has no rights to it.

Five years ago, Jerusalem city hall announced it was expropriating the land to build a school there. Since then, the family has fought a legal battle against their eviction, but has been unable to prove ownership of the property. In any case, even if they can prove that they own the land, the municipality has the right to expropriate it for public purposes in return for monetary compensation.

A year ago, judge Anat Singer of the Jerusalem District Court ruled in favor of the city, and allowed the eviction to proceed. Five days ago, the lawyer representing the family, Ahmed Kadamani, submitted an urgent request to prevent the eviction, claiming the eviction order only relates to the parents, and not to the rest of the family members. Judge Einat Avman-Muller of the Jerusalem District Court requested the city’s response, but did not issue an order delaying carrying out the eviction order.

On Sunday, a few dozen activists of the Free Jerusalem movement demonstrated across from the home of Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon in the Rehavia neighborhood to protest the planned eviction.