JERUSALEM, May 22, 2011 (WAFA) - A reinforced Israeli border police Sunday closed the entrance of Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood central of Jerusalem.

Witnesses told WAFA that ultra- Orthodox Israeli Jews attacked the neighborhood’s children, near the cave of Sheikh Mohammed al-Sa’di, which they call ‘tomb (shrine) of Shimon haTzadik after Judaizing it, thus the residents interfered to defend their children.

They added that residents of the neighborhood and some settlers were engaged in a fight. Furthermore one of the settlers who seized a part of al Kurds’ house tried to unleash his wild dog to terrify the women and children.

When Israeli border police arrived they closed the area in order to arrest a group of boys from the neighborhood, claiming that they attacked the settlers.

It’s noteworthy that from 1948, Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was on the edge of UN-patrolled no-man's land between West Jerusalem and the Israeli enclave on Mount Scopus. A wall stretched from Sheikh Jarrah to Mandelbaum Gate; former checkpoint between Israeli and Jordanian sectors of Jerusalem, dividing the city. In 1956, the Jordanian government moved 28 displaced Palestinian families here. As permanent ownership transfer was illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the area was placed under the jurisdiction of the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property.

During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel took over East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah. In 1972, ‘Sephardic Community Committee’ and the ‘Knesset Yisrael Committee’ went to court to reclaim property in the neighborhood. In 1982, they demanded rent for this property and the Supreme Court of Israel ruled in their favor. The tenants (Palestinian residents) were allowed to remain as long as they paid rent.

Y.Y./F.R.