[News] Israeli occupation authorities to seize Palestinian properties in Bab al-Silsila

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Israeli occupation authorities to seize Palestinian properties in Bab
al-Silsila

Sunday 20-July-2025 -
https://english.palinfo.com/jerusalem/2025/07/20/343660/
<https://english.palinfo.com/jerusalem/2025/07/20/343660/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/jerusalem/2025/07/20/343660/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/jerusalem/2025/07/20/343660/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/jerusalem/2025/07/20/343660/#>
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)

Israeli occupation authorities have issued a decision to seize Palestinian
properties in the Bab al-Silsila neighborhood, one of the main entrances of
the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in a new escalation targeting Palestinian presence in
the Old City of Jerusalem.

The decision, issued by the resigned Israeli Minister of Jerusalem and
Heritage, Meir Porush, includes homes and commercial stores located along
the Bab al-Silsila road leading directly to Al-Aqsa Mosque. No specific
details were provided about the number of properties or their owners.
However, on-the-ground realities confirm that the targeted area comprises
historically Palestinian-owned properties dating back to the Ayyubid,
Mamluk, and Ottoman eras.

According to Hebrew media outlets, the decision was made on the eve of
Porush’s resignation, which came amid disputes between Haredi parties and
the government over the exemption of religious Jews from military service,
suggesting the decision was politically motivated to appease the extremist
religious right.

Porush justified his decision by referencing what he called “the return of
the Old City to the people of Israel in 1967,” claiming that all property
in the so-called “Jewish Quarter” was seized at the time by an Israeli
government company tasked with its rehabilitation. He acknowledged,
however, that the current decision has not yet been implemented on the
ground, despite being included in an Israeli land appropriation map.

A new settlement step

The Jerusalem Governorate affirmed that the decision constitutes a new
colonial step targeting the heart of the occupied city and its historical
and religious landmarks, opening the door to systematic forced displacement
and property theft under a false legal pretext.

In a statement on Sunday, the governorate said that targeting Bab
al-Silsila, with its Islamic landmarks and historical buildings, is part of
intensified efforts to settle the issue of Jerusalem by imposing Judaizing
facts on the ground and clearing the pathways to Al-Aqsa Mosque of its
original Palestinian residents.

The statement added that this decision cannot be separated from the
accelerating Judaization policies, which include settlement expansion,
infrastructure projects such as the Israeli train line cutting through
Palestinian neighborhoods, and land registration schemes turning them into
so-called “state lands” in service of the colonial project.

The governorate warned that implementing the seizure decision would turn
Bab al-Silsila into a closed settler-only corridor, used exclusively for
settler incursions, threatening freedom of access to Al-Aqsa Mosque and
effectively imposing a siege on Islamic and Christian presence in the Old
City.

The statement noted that the so-called “Jewish Quarter” was originally
established on Palestinian land seized since 1968. Before the Nakba, it
spanned no more than five dunums, but later expanded to around 130 dunums,
largely at the expense of properties belonging to prominent Jerusalemite
families, including the Namri, Ghneim, al-Bishty, al-Ja’ouni, al-Alam,
Sharaf, and Burqan families.

The statement also described the intention to seize about 20 properties at
this stage as a prelude to a broader phase of displacement and control,
part of an Israeli plan to connect the “Jewish Quarter” with adjacent
settler outposts to sever the Old City from its Palestinian surroundings.
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