JERUSALEM, March 28, 2012 (WAFA) – Israeli tax collectors backed by a large police force raided shops in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan Wednesday and seized goods from several stores on the pretext the owners did not pay their taxes, according to a local activist.

Fakhri Abu Diab, who heads the Committee for the Defense of Silwan, said residents clashed with police when they confronted the tax collectors, who were confiscating goods from shops and loading them onto trucks.

Police fired tear gas at the protesters and the crowded homes in the neighborhood, while young Palestinians threw rocks at the police force and tax collectors, said the Silwan activist.

Police arrested a 24-year-old resident, he said.

M.S.