Ateret Cohanim, an organization that helps Jews settle in formerly Arab-only neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem, announced today that it had facilitated the purchase of two buildings from their Arab owners, AP reported.
Spokesman Daniel Lurie said the buildings have nine apartments, into which Jewish families as well as yeshiva students will be moving soon.
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The move will likely double the Jewish population in that part of Jerusalem.
There is no law against Jews settling anywhere inside the state of Israel proper, which includes east Jerusalem
Accordint to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, the buildings’ owners, Salah al-Rajabi and Imran al-Qawasmi, sold them to a Palestinian man identified as Shams al-Din al-Qawasmi, who in turn sold the buildings to new Jew residents.
According to Ma’an, there are now 25 Jewish-owned buildings in Silwan, in four settlement outposts, “increasing fears of a gradual Jewish takeover of the strategic area.”
The Silwan neighborhood is adjacent to the walled Old City.
“For the Jewish people, having Jewish life back in an old Jewish neighborhood is paramount, ” Daniel Lurie commented.
Jewish immigrants from Yemen used to live in this neighborhood, until they were pushed out by Arab rioters in the 1920s and 1930s. Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King told Arutz Sheva: “This morning the Jewish population in the Yemenite Village doubled.”
Umm Muhammed Shiyoukhi, a Palestinian who lives near one of the homes occupied Monday, said the new buyers were ” all thieves.” She hit the door of their new home with a rubber squeegee and repeatedly jabbed it through a small hole in the glass window as a tenant inside tried to patch the hole with a rag.
AP quoted Israeli attorney Avi Segal, who said in an email that Kudram Ltd., a foreign real estate investment company he represents, legally purchased the two buildings.
Segal said another real estate company he represents, Kendall Finance, purchased the six buildings Jews had moved into in Silwan in late September.
The reason these purchases were made via a proxy has to do with the fact that Palestinians often execute real estate agents who openly sell to Jews.
