Palestinian evicted from East Jerusalem flashpoison threatens gas canisters

JERUSALEM, Jan 17, Reuters -- A Palestinian facing eviction by Israeli police from the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah threatened on Monday to blow up gas canisters at his home rather than let his family be forced out.

Hundreds of police in riot gear surrounded the property from early in the morning during an hours-long stand-off. Roads were sealed off around the area, about 1 kilometer one-half mile north of Jerusalem's Old City walls, where clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers often erupted last year.

Jerusalem's municipality expropriated land to build a school, in an area Israel captured and occupied in a 1967 war, along with the rest of East Jerusalem, and later annexed. An Israeli court ruled in favor of the eviction.

The house and everything in it will not be left here, from here to the grave, because there is no life, no dignity, Mahmoud Salhiyeh said as he stood on the roof of the building, surrounded by gas canisters.

I've been in battle with them for 25 years, they sent me settlers who offered to buy the house, and I did not agree. Sheikh Jarrah, a tree-lined area of sandstone homes, foreign consulates and luxury hotels, has become an emblem of what Palestinians regard as an Israeli campaign to force them out of East Jerusalem.

The case was ruled by a court on Monday, according to Israeli Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev.

You can't hold the stick at both ends by demanding that the municipality take action on welfare for Arab residents and opposing the building of educational establishments for their welfare, Bar-Lev wrote on Twitter.

As Sheikh Jarrah residents and activists watched the situation from nearby rooftops, the British Consulate in East Jerusalem said that Consul-General Diane Corner had joined other diplomats to bear witness to the ongoing eviction. It urged the Israeli government to stop such practices that only serve to increase tensions on the ground.