Occupied Jerusalem Khalil Al-Tafakji, a map and settlement expert in Jerusalem, said that there are three reasons behind the settlers’ attacks on Palestinian properties in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
Al-Tafkaji said, in his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, that these reasons push the settlement associations to attack the properties of Jerusalemites in the town of At-Tur in particular.
Today, Monday morning, settlers seized a new property belonging to a citizen from the Abu al-Hawa family in the Mount of Olives neighborhood, near and overlooking the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Settlers seize an apartment in the town of At-Tur, east of Jerusalem #Jerusalem#Gaza_War #video pic.twitter.com/sKSVwWIwYd
— Tel Aviv Tribune Channel (@AJArabic) September 16, 2024
The settlement expert adds: “Behind the ambitions in the Mount of Olives neighborhood, also known as the town of At-Tur, are Jewish legends that this mountain and the Jewish cemetery located in it are supposed to be where the awaited Messiah will descend carrying the alleged temple, and thus the religious vision is used here for political purposes.”
He said that the second motive is touristic, as Israel is interested in this area overlooking the Dome of the Rock and the Old City, and it will also be one of the stations of the Judaization “cable car” project, and hence the interest in the properties near it also emerges.
He added that the seizure of the Abu al-Hawa family home cannot be separated from what is known as the “Holy Basin” surrounding the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to the Jewish vision of the place.
According to Tafakji, the settlement associations want to send a message that they are buying Jerusalem stone by stone to say that they are buying and not occupying.
According to the Abu al-Hawa family, about 50 settlers stormed the house at 3:00 a.m. and seized it without the family’s daughter, Ibtisam Abu al-Hawa, who lives in the house adjacent to the leaked property, being able to obtain any information. The occupation police told her, “Go to court.”
Ibtisam Abu Al-Hawa said in a video published by the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Jerusalem that a Jerusalemite citizen was preparing to carry out some maintenance work on the apartment, before moving in, but the settlers’ attack was a surprise.
The elderly Jerusalemite woman accused members of her family of leaking the property (selling it secretly), stressing that she will resort to the judiciary to recover it.
She added: “I was surprised by their presence (the settlers) after my neighbor woke me up and told me that there were men at the door of the house. I woke up and found the settlers breaking down the door of the house and entering, knowing that the apartment was empty, and a new tenant was preparing to take it over. They also seized the land surrounding it.”
It is noteworthy that the number of settlement outposts on the Mount of Olives has increased to three with the seizure of the new property, as a property called “Beit Ort” and another property called “Beit Hoshen” were seized before it.
〽️ “Overlooking Al-Aqsa Mosque”
Photos | “The house and plot of land that settlers seized at dawn today in the town of At-Tur in Jerusalem.They put barbed wire, iron bars and surveillance cameras around the house. #ascension pic.twitter.com/sqp7zPEHut
— Miraj (@M3rajNet) September 16, 2024
For his part, Ahmed Abu Al-Hawa, who was preparing to move into the property, said that he was surprised at night by a phone call informing him that the settlers had occupied the house.
He added: “I left, but due to the heavy deployment of the army and settlers, I could not do anything. They came in force, the army and the police. They bought the house fraudulently. They bought it from one of the owners without the knowledge of the rest of the heirs.”
Immediately after seizing the property, it was surrounded with barbed wire, iron gates were installed, and surveillance cameras were installed around it.
Settlement associations pay large sums of money to buy properties in Jerusalem, often from one person without the knowledge of the rest of the family, which prompted the city’s scholars, headed by Sheikh Akram Sabri, to call on Jerusalemites to dedicate their properties as a hereditary (family) endowment, to prevent their leakage.
The number of Israeli settlers in Jerusalem is estimated at about 230,000, hundreds of whom are spread out in pockets within Palestinian neighborhoods.