Mo'az Al-Za'tari, the director of Al-Maqdese for Society Development Organization, said the worshippers held prayers in a protest tent in Al-Bustan area. He added that the Israeli police deployed hundreds of officers in the neighborhood to prevent any gathering. No clashes were reported.
Al-Za'tari added that the tent was erected to protest Israeli measures — mainly the Israeli demolition policy — in the neighborhood.
Last June, the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem municipality's planning committee approved a contentious plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes to make room for a tourist center in the area. The center, called Al-Bustan in Arabic and Gan Hamelekh (King's Garden) in Hebrew, is to include restaurants and boutique hotels.
Za'tari said "there are 125 homes in Al-Bustan slated for demolition." He added that the homes were built before the establishment of the state of Israel.
The policy of house demolitions and settlement building in East Jerusalem is being pursued by the Israeli authorities and Jerusalem municipality to increase the Jewish presence and manipulate the composition of the population in order to gain more control over the city prior to final status talks with the Palestinian Authority.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ordered to remove left-wing Israeli activist Michael Salzberg from Silwan for a period of three months.
The decision came after Salzberg said during a rally a few weeks ago: "Only by causing a mess, we can keep the Jews away."
In a related development, the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) is transferring Palestinian properties in the Silwan to right-wing groups Elad and Ateret Cohanim for low prices, without issuing a tender as required by law, a report said.
The two groups promote the "Judaization" of East Jerusalem by settling of Jews in Silwan
The daily Haaretz said that an Israeli court decided to have the ILA release only part of the information at the end of a lengthy legal struggle conducted by left-wing activist Dror Etkes, to prevent the properties' identification.
The report said that the ILA's list does not include dozens of properties, perhaps because they were handed over to other related organizations or subsidiaries, some of which are registered abroad.
