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JERUSALEM, January 28, 2013 (WAFA) – Lawyers representing families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan whose homes were target for demolition succeeded Monday in stopping the destruction of the homes but not before heavy damage was caused to structures and land in the area, according to one of the lawyers.

Workers from the Israeli West Jerusalem municipality arrived in Wadi Rababa area of Silwan Monday with a goal to demolish two Palestinian home under the pretext they were built without a permit.

Attorney Amir Murid said he asked the Jerusalem court to stop the demolition on ground the workers were causing heavy damage to private property in the area in order to reach the targeted homes.

The workers and police left the area after presenting them with the court order, he said, but not before several structures and parts of one of the homes belonging to the Shqair family were heavily damaged.

Confrontations broke out in Silwan between residents and a police force providing protection to the workers and their bulldozer when the force arrived in the area to demolish the homes.

Fakhri Abu Diab, head of the Committee for the Defense of Silwan, told WAFA earlier that residents attempted to stop the demolition and confronted the Israeli force leading to the injury of several people, including women.

A couple of the injured were hit in the head by rubber-coated metal bullets, he said.

Police had also arrested three people, said a local rights group.

M.S.
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Jan 28, 2013

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces demolished at least four buildings and a sewage network in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan early Monday, locals said.

Bulldozers leveled land and uprooted olive trees in order to access the demolition sites, closing all the surrounding roads, witnesses told Ma'an.

The raid, shortly after the dawn prayer, prompted clashes with local residents. Witnesses said several youth were detained by Israeli police, including Khalid al-Zeir and Firas Awad. An Israeli police spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Silwan resident Abdul-Munim Shuweiki said forces demolished a fence and uprooted 10-year-old olive trees to access his land.

The bulldozers razed his garage and a steel building, damaging an external staircase, he told Silwan's Wadi Hilweh Information Center.

Ahmad Simrin, who owns land in the area, said Israeli bulldozers leveled parts of his land and demolished a sewage network.

He told the Wadi Hilweh Center that he showed an Israeli commander a title deed dating back to 1892, which proves that the land was owned by his grandfather Awad Simrin. Israel does not recognize that deed and insists the area is a national park, he said.

Israeli bulldozers also demolished a tin-roofed room in the neighborhood, which was built in 1956, according to owner Faraj Shukeir.

The demolition also damaged an older room and the front yard of the house.

Israeli forces then demolished a newer house, built eleven years ago and inhabited by a family of four, belonging to Silwan resident Ayman Shukeir.

Silwan -- adjacent to the Old City's Dome of the Rock compound and Western Wall -- is a populated by a number of settler homes under heavy Israeli guard, and the site of frequent clashes with forces on arrest raids targeting the Palestinian population.

Israel insists that Jerusalem is its "eternal and indivisible" capital, and annexed the city's eastern sector after a 1967 war in a move never recognized by the international community.

For Palestinians, East Jerusalem is the capital of their promised state.
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