Court Upholds Eviction of Jewish Settlers

A court today upheld an order to evict 150 Jewish settlers who rented church-owned buildings in the Christian quarter of the walled Old City despite protests by Palestinian Christians.

The settlement of the Jews under police guard only days before Easter raised tensions in the Old City, where traditionally Muslims, Christians and Jews have lived in separate and jealously guarded neighborhoods.

The settlers moved into the 72-room complex last Wednesday and set up the largest Jewish settlement in the Old City, which Israel captured from Jordan in 1967.

The settlers said the four buildings were sublet to a Panamanian company, which rented to them. The Greek Orthodox Church contended that the rental to the settlers was illegal.

Avraham Sochozolsky, a lawyer for the Greek Orthodox Church, said he will ask police to carry out the eviction order.

The three-judge panel of the Jerusalem District Court ruled that a stay of the eviction notice granted Friday by a single District Court judge was improperly obtained. The action in effect reinstated the original eviction order.

Earlier today, Palestinian women and masked youths, protesting the Jewish settlement in Jerusalem, waved outlawed Palestinian flags and chanted inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, venerated as the site of Christ’s burial and resurrection.

Visiting pilgrims and tourists stared in amazement as the 40 to 50 demonstrators chanted “PLO, PLO!” and “Israel no, Palestine yes!” inside what many regard as Christianity’s holiest site.