Occupied Jerusalem – On Saturday, the Israeli occupation authorities distributed notices to a number of residents of the Silwan neighborhood, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, calling on them to evacuate their homes within 60 days.
The Jerusalem Governorate (the highest Palestinian representation in the city) said that the occupation forces notified 30 families in the Al-Baydoun neighborhood in the town of Silwan of displacement from their homes, within two months, with the aim of building a base for the cable car.
For its part, the Wadi Hilweh Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem reported from some residents of the neighborhood that the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem hung signs asking them to vacate their homes and lands in the neighborhood in favor of the train project.
The total targeted area of real estate and lands described in the decision is estimated at approximately 8,725 square metres.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry: We strongly condemn the occupation’s decision to notify 30 families in the town of Silwan in Jerusalem of their displacement from their homes within two months. pic.twitter.com/LmHPCW7ifz
– Tel Aviv Tribune Channel (@AJArabic) December 9, 2023
For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates considered the Israeli notification “an extension of the crime of ethnic cleansing it is committing against Jerusalemites with the aim of emptying the city of its original citizens.”
It saw the Israeli announcement as a blow to the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem to facilitate and complete its ongoing Judaization processes by changing its historical, political, legal and demographic reality.
It called for urgent international and American intervention to stop “the crime of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and all unilateral and illegal Israeli measures.”
In 2019, the committee responsible for infrastructure in Israel approved a project to establish a suspended air train that will pass through several points in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem and around its historical walls, as part of the projects to Judaize the Holy City.
The cable car connects the Mount of Olives to Al-Buraq Square, and aims to connect the eastern and western parts of Jerusalem.