The Arab League condemned the crime of displacing families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem to replace them with settlers in continuation of the policy of forced displacement of Palestinians from the holy city.
Saeed Abu Ali, the Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine and the occupied Arab territories of the Arab League, warned in a statement published by Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) on Wednesday that what is happening in the city of Jerusalem, especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, is nothing but a war crime and serious ethnic cleansing in a series of crimes.
He also said that this blatant, systematic, and escalating aggression that targets the Palestinian people, their existence, and their rights, especially in the city of Jerusalem, is dangerous and unprecedented.
Abu Ali added that the policy of demolishing Palestinian homes by occupation authorities — the most recent of which was the demolition of two homes for the Salhia family in Sheikh Jarrah, the displacement of 13 of its members in the open cold weather, and the arrest of 27 citizens under false justifications — aims to achieve one result, which is the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland and place restrictions on them.
He explained that more than 100 members of the police participated in the brutal crime of demolishing the house of the Salhia family, which is considered a war crime under international and humanitarian law and a repetition of the catastrophe of the family’s displacement from Ein Karem in 1948.
The assistant secretary-general called on the international community and the International Criminal Court to take immediate action to put an end to this ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, noting that there was a direct and complete targeting of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and six other neighbourhoods in Silwan, stressing the need to respond quickly and decisively to these crimes.
On Wednesday, Israeli occupation forces demolished two homes of the Salhia family in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem.
WAFA said that large forces of the army surrounded the houses of the Salhia family in Sheikh Jarrah at three in the morning, beat the young men standing in solidarity with the family and arrested 21 of them.
It added that the forces stormed the two houses and beat their occupants before arresting six of them and expelling the women and children out into the open, pointing out that the forces turned the vicinity of the two houses into a closed military area and prevented citizens from approaching them.
