Israeli officials inaugurated a Jewish heritage center on Aug. 1 in a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem, escalating an already fierce legal battle between local residents and Jewish settlers who also claim the land.
Amid high security, senior Israeli ministers and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israel, attended the ceremony on a narrow, trash-strewn street in the Silwan neighborhood, a recent flash point for tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Israel government says the center will honor Yemenite Jews who lived here in the 19th century and has allocated $1.2 million to develop the site. But Palestinians say the center is part of a larger effort by Jewish settlers and their allies in the government to consolidate control of Arab neighborhoods in the city.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including scores who live in Silwan. The settler group Ateret Cohanim has spearheaded efforts to settle Jews in Palestinian areas, including the Batan al-Hawa quarter of Silwan, where the heritage center was opened, according to human rights groups and reports in Israeli media.
Palestinians, however, are not afforded similar claims to property they once owned in West Jerusalem or other cities and towns in Israel. And rights activists say this imbalance undercuts prospects for peace.
In Batan al-Hawa, Ateret Cohanim has given eviction orders to Rajabi and other families to clear room for the center and for expanded Israeli settlements. Rajabi and more than 100 others have disputed the orders, claiming that Israel’s government unlawfully transferred the land to representatives of Ateret Cohanim more than a decade ago. The settler group says the land once belonged to a Jewish trust assisting migrant Yemenite Jews.
Source: WP