Netherlands calls on ‘Israel’ to stop forced displacement of Palestinian family from house in Sheikh Jarrah
Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- The Dutch government has called on Israeli occupation authorities to “immediately” stop its forced displacement of a Palestinian family from its house in Sheikh Jarrah neighbirhood in East Jerusalem.
“Ongoing attempt to evict a Palestinian family from their East Jerusalem home is contrary to international law and risks further escalation,” tweeted, Hans Docter, the Dutch ambassador to ‘Israel’.
The Dutch ambassador added, “calls on the Israeli authorities to stop the eviction immediately.”
Ongoing attempt to evict a Palestinian family from their East Jerusalem home is contrary to international law and risks further escalation. š³š± calls on the Israeli authorities to stop the eviction immediately.
— Dutch ambassador to Israel š³š± (@hansdocter) January 17, 2022
Earlier today, the Israeli occupation forces and municipality staff stormed the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and forced the Salhiya family to empty their nursery of contents, as a prelude to demolish it and seize the land, claiming that the seizure of the land was in the āpublic interestā to establish a school there.
The house of the family was also cordoned off by the forces who forcibly displaced the family.
The occupation municipality has ordered the family to leave its house and gave it until January 25 to implement the decision. The family received the order at least three times in four months.
However, Mahmoud, the owner of the house, refused today to obey the order of the municipality and threatened to set himself and the house on fire, in opposition to the forced displacement.
Photos | The Salhiya family in the occupied #Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah set fire at the entrance to their home and threaten to blow up the home using gasoline and gas cylinders in the event of their forceful expulsion by the occupation authorities. pic.twitter.com/o0OZ0e4D6D
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 17, 2022
Hours later, after the occupation forces called in reinforcements as Mahmoud refused to obey the Israeli dispossession order, the family members poured gasoline on their house’s roof and threatened again to set the house on fire.
Watch | Members of the Salhiya family in the occupied #Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah refuse to obey an Israeli dispossession order and threaten to set their home on fire in the event of their expulsion. pic.twitter.com/hjYe1hCvYh
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 17, 2022
Large numbers of occupation soldiers and police officers have also deployed in the vicinity of the family’s house, besieging the house.
Israeli occupation forces are imposing a siege on the Salhiya family in the occupied #Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, as the family refuse to obey an Israeli dispossession order and threaten to set their home on fire in the event of their expulsion. pic.twitter.com/s5IoC8bSel
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 17, 2022
Hours ago, the forces and municipality staff have started demolishing a plantation owned by the family with a heavy bulldozer.
A heavy Israeli bulldozer arrives in the vicinity of Salhia family home in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, occupied #Jerusalem, as the family of 12, inc. 5 children, are threatening to set the house on fire in the event of their forceful expulsion from their home.#SaveSheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/w4iL4H1inG
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 17, 2022
The Salhiya family was displaced from its house in the west Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Karem in 1948 during the ethnic cleansing of the village.
They bought a new house in the 1950s in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, over a decade before ‘Israel’ occupied and annexed the area. The house is inhabited by two families made up of 12 members, including nine children.
The family was offered by the occupation municipality an eight-month extension to convince them to sign a paper stating that they would become a tenant of the house, but they refused.
The family also said that the battle to keep its house had cost them around NIS 600,000 (about $ 190,000) in fines, the cost of filing cases and appointing lawyers.
"I'll set myself on fire."
Mahmoud Salhiya, a Palestinian home owner from the occupied #Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, is refusing to obey an Israeli dispossession order, and is threatening to blow up his home in the event of a forceful expulsion.#SaveSheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/hM0MBMRDqq
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 17, 2022
More than 500 Palestinians living in 28 houses in the neighborhood are also threatened with forced displacement by settler organizations supported by the Israeli occupation government.
