Silwan houses taken over causes a call for confrontation
Palestine, Politics, 6/9/1998

A leading member of the Palestine Legislative Council called on Tuesday for an open confrontation with Israel over its settlement policy in East Jerusalem.

"With the new takeover by Jewish settlers of four Arab houses in Silwan and the continued excavation works in Herod's Gate, Israel has crossed every line and it is about time for the Palestinians to start a massive popular campaign to confront the Israeli measures," said Hashem Zughayer of Jerusalem. Zughayer's statement came to reflect how the impatient the Palestine National Authority feels with regard to the ongoing impasse in the peace process on one hand and to the repeated ongoing Israeli takeover of Arab property in East Jerusalem.

A group of Jewish settlers broke into four houses in Silwan on the night between Monday and Tuesday claiming that the property was theirs. Lawyer Jawad Boulos, who represents the house's owners, said he would file a complaint with the Israeli courts stressing that the whole move was illegal. He noted that back in 1991, the Israeli court had issued an order evicting the Jewish settlers from the same houses they had then taken over. "Since then, there has not been a single court order that has allowed the settlers access back into the houses," he said.

From the early hours of Tuesday, PLO Executive Committee member Faisal Husseini arrived to the scene of the houses along with members of the PLC and other notables from East Jerusalem. A group of Israeli Peace Now activists accompanied them and they both scuffled with the settlers. Husseini, who holds the Jerusalem portfolio in the Palestinian government, was moderately wounded when a stone hit his head.

Members of the Siam family own three of the houses while the fourth belongs to Mousa Qara'een. One of the Siam family members allegedly sold his house to another Palestinian who is now believed to have sold it illegally to an Israeli firm. Palestinian sources said the deal was not legal and that the three houses were re-bought by a Palestinian to abrogate any attempt by the settlers to enter those houses.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, condemned the Jewish move into the Arab houses in East Jerusalem and said such policies by the Israeli government will keep any form of peace far away from the region. Erekat said that time is running out and called on the US to make a concerted effort to save the peace process. The US, he said, should announce openly its ideas for the implementation of the second stage redeployment and prepare the ground for a proper start of the final status talks with Israel.

Erekat reiterated Palestinian rejection of any form of modification for the US peace ideas and said the Palestinians cannot accept much less than the minimum that was agreed upon in the Oslo Accords. The 13 percent scope of Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, he said, was far less than the scale discussed and agreed upon in the Oslo Accords but, "We still accepted it in order to move the peace efforts forward and not to be blamed for causing the current standoff."

The US, according to Israeli sources, has decided not to issue any guarantees to Israel with regard to the scope of the third phase redeployment in the West Bank. Haaretz Hebrew daily quoted Tuesday morning a US official in the Clinton Administration as saying that the US has learned from the enormous effort it has put in the question of the second phase that it should not issue any new guarantees to Israel. Israel has asked the US for guarantees that the third phase redeployment would only be symbolic and not involve more than one percent of West Bank territory.

Previous Stories:
  Erekat is pessimistic, while al-Baz is certain of redeployment   (6/8/1998)
  Arafat gives two-week time limit to the U.S. administration   (6/4/1998)
  Arab summit and the Israeli withdrawal   (6/1/1998)

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