Middle East Monitor / April 8, 2021
Jewish settlers seized 15 Palestinian houses in the occupied East Jerusalem district of Silwan, the Palestinian Information Centre quoted Israel’s Channel 7 reporting.
According to the channel, the settlers placed Israeli flags on 15 houses in Silwan after the Ateret Cohanim organisation seized them and handed them to settler families.
Ateret Cohanim is a government-backed Jewish group and educational institute located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It actively works on Judaising the holy city and expelling its indigenous Palestinian residents from their homes.
The channel pointed out that these new seized homes joined 22 others that were recently taken over by Ateret Cohanim.
In 2004, Ateret Cohanim began applying to Israeli courts to enable it to seize Palestinian homes and property and displace local families in Silwan and other neighbourhoods in the Holy City.
