Clashes at Jerusalem house after Palestinians evicted

Clashes broke out on Friday during protests in support of a Palestinian family evicted from their home in occupied east Jerusalem, AFP journalists said.

Around 150 Palestinians and leftwing Israeli activists protested the eviction of the Shamasneh family, with scuffles between police, protesters and Israeli settlers, AFP reporters on the scene in the Sheikh Jarrah district said.

At least four people, including a young child, were detained by police while settlers sprayed gas at the demonstrators, the reporters said.

An Israeli civilian attacked an AFP video reporter without provocation, punching his camera, which hit his nose.

As the reporter reacted to the attack, police officers on the scene intervened to defend the civilian, and hit the journalist several times.

AFP's management said it protested "against this attack and asks Israeli authorities to ensure that journalists can carry out their work in complete safety."

The Shamasnehs, including 84-year-old grandfather Ayoub, were forcibly evicted on Tuesday from their home of more than 50 years, after a court ruled Israeli Jews the legal occupants.

They had for years been fighting a court battle against Jewish claimants who said the building was their family property, which they fled when east Jerusalem was occupied by Jordanian troops in the 1948 war that led to the creation of the Jewish state.

Under Israeli law, if Jews can prove their families lived in east Jerusalem homes before the 1948 war they can demand that Israel's general custodian office release the property and return their "ownership rights".

During that war, thousands of Jews fled Jerusalem as Jordanian-led Arab forces seized the city, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled from land that was later to become Israel.

No such law exists for Palestinians who lost their land.

The Shamasnehs say they had paid 250 shekels ($70) a month to the general custodian since 1967, an arrangement used by the settlers' side as proof that the family acknowledged its status as tenants.

In 2013, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Jewish claimants.

Tuesday's eviction was the first in the neighbourhood since 2009, according to Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now.

source: AFP