Israeli police blocking the road to the Shamasneh residence in Sheikh Jarrah as they proceed to evict the Palestinian family from its home, which was immediately turned over to fanatic Jewish settlers. (WAFA photo) 

JERUSALEM, September 5, 2017 (WAFA) – Israeli police forcefully evicted early Tuesday a Palestinian family from its home for decades in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and allowed fanatic Jewish settlers to move right in, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said a large police and border police force raided the neighborhood in the early hours and forced the Shamasneh family, which has been living in that home since 1964, to leave it. Police then escorted a group of settlers as they moved into the evacuated home.

An Israeli court had earlier ruled that the Shamasnehs should leave their home and turn it over to the settlers following a law suit claiming that the home belongs to Jews.

The family contested the court ruling on the ground that they were protected tenants, but without success.

The family and supporters have been holding vigils in and around the house for the last two weeks in anticipation of its forceful eviction.

Jewish settler groups are also demanding the eviction of 45 other Palestinian families from the same neighborhood on similar grounds.

While Israeli courts are allowing Jewish families to retake their property in East Jerusalem they had abandoned in the 1948 war, hundreds of Palestinian families who own homes in West Jerusalem and inside Israel and which have been occupied by Jewish families since the 1948 war were not granted similar rights.

M.K.