The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan said in a press statement the 20-year-old Ahmed Al-Jo'beh lost his sight after inhaling tear gas Israeli forces fired during the clashes that erupted in the neighborhood that followed the killing of Samer Sarhan on late September.
Sarhan was shot dead by an Israeli security guard protecting a Jewish settlement in the neighborhood. Violent clashes ensued after that incident, in which a 35-year-old Jewish occupier was stabbed and several other Palestinians were wounded, and arrested
The center said that a medical examination in an East Jerusalem hospital proved that Al-Jo'beh lost his sight due to the tear gas. It added that Al-Jo'beh also lost his job.
Since the killing of Sarhan, hardly a day has gone by in Silwan without clashes between Palestinian activists and Israeli security forces. The Israeli police maintain heavy pressure in the neighborhood to prevent further rioting by Palestinian youth.
Silwan is home to some 60,000 Palestinians and 500 Jewish occupiers. Rightist Jewish groups say that only Jews should live on this land. The resulting friction between the tens of thousands of Palestinians and some 70 occupiers' families requires the presence of dozens of security guards and surveillance cameras.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed it, and has since built settlements there that are home to more than 200,000 Israelis.
Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city is its eternal capital.
