Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat has linked the prospective demolition of unauthorised settlement outpost Amona with the fate of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to Israeli media reports, Barkat wrote to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and asked him to “examine the consequences” for property in Jerusalem of the Israeli Supreme Court decision to dismantle the Amona outpost.
“It has been brought to my attention recently that in my city of Jerusalem there are cases which are similar in principle, whereby Arab settlement has been established on Jewish owned land in the eastern part of the city,” Barkat wrote.
He added: “There are also city and government-owned lands which have been settled by Arabs.”
MEMO reported last week that, according to the United Nations, eviction cases have been filed against at least 180 Palestinian households in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the majority initiated by settler organisations.
Barkat’s letter requests the Attorney General’s opinion “regarding the ramifications of the Supreme Court ruling [concerning Amona] and its implementation by the Israeli government on the Jerusalem municipality, especially in the cases which I have described.”