EU asks Israel to stop forced eviction of Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem

Amman: The European Union's mission made an appeal to Israel on Monday requesting stoppage to the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, Arab News reported.

The EU's mission to West Bank and Gaza Strip's head Sven Kuhn von Burgsorff asked how a family could be evicted from their home at Christmas and in the middle of winter. The EU's delegation posted on Twitter about a family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied Jerusalem who is served with an eviction notice to leave the property by December 28.

Arab News reports that Israel is running a campaign to acquire as many houses as possible in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and populate it with Jewish settlers to convert it into a Jewish area.

However, there is an appeal at the Supreme Court against forced evictions.

Israeli law states that land rights belonging to Jews who lived in occupied Jerusalem before 1948 can be transferred. But the law does not include Palestinians who lost their lands in West Jerusalem. The administration of absentee properties is under Israel's control, and it is paving the way for Jewish settlers.

Many Palestinians, who had lived here since the 1950s, are now forced to evacuate. Settlers claiming that they had purchased lands from Jewish families before 1948 fence the land after serving eviction notices to Palestinian residents. Israeli Land Fund is alleged to be supporting these forced evictions.