Settlers Move Into Arab Jerusalem

Jewish settlers with assault rifles slung over their shoulders moved into two buildings in a crowded Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday, sparking clashes between Israeli troops and Arab residents.

Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, condemned the incident, saying it proved Israel was more interested in expanding settlements than in making peace.

The settlers say they're restoring a Jewish presence in a neighborhood from which Jews were expelled in the Arab riots of 1938, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger, and they purchased the property legally.

In recent years, hawkish Jewish groups, with the backing of hard-line governments and foreign investors, have bought several properties in east Jerusalem to strengthen Israel's hold there.

Israel says it will never relinquish the sector of the city it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war.

At daybreak Wednesday, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews lugged boxes, chairs, tables and potted plants into buildings in the Silwan neighborhood of east Jerusalem. A van packed with sofas and couches arrived, and settlers hauled a water tank onto the roof of one building and set up a generator.

Settlers said eight families are to move into the buildings — a seven-story apartment building and a smaller house — which investors bought for them. The Arab owner of the smaller house said his property was seized unlawfully.

After settlers moved into the two buildings Wednesday morning, clashes erupted in a narrow alley. Palestinian residents began throwing stones from rooftops.

Police and soldiers commandeered three nearby buildings, stationing themselves on rooftops and firing tear gas at the demonstrators. Troops also entered four other Palestinian homes, pulling young men out. Police beat one Palestinian man with a baton and handcuffed six others, dragging them away.

Nine Palestinians were arrested for stone-throwing, and six police officers were hurt, police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said. At least three Palestinians were seen bleeding.

The larger building appeared empty, but Silwan resident Awad Rajbi said he bought the smaller home six months ago and was living elsewhere as he renovated it.

"They took my home away by force, I bought this with my money," Rajbi said.

Rajbi's brother, Akram, said they were looking for the man who sold the house. Rajbi alleged the man sold the house a second time to Jewish settlers and flew to the United States late Tuesday. "Last night the settlers came. They say they have a contract. They say they bought this house," Akram Rajbi said.

Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said the Jewish group had a contract showing they bought the house in 2001.

"We have sent both sides to court, and the court will decide whom the house belongs to," he said.

The settlers said they were members of the Committee for the Renewal of the Yemenite Village in Shiloah — Shiloah is Hebrew for Silwan — and that their aim was to re-establish a Jewish presence in the neighborhood.

Daniel Luria, a spokesman for the committee, said a community of Jews from Yemen had been established in the area 122 years ago. In 1938, the last of the families were forced to leave during Arab riots, he said.

"Sixty-six years later we have returned Jewish families to the area with the idea of living side-by-side with the Arabs," Luria said, adding that three of the eight families are of Yemenite heritage so "it's really closing a circle."

Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said the Jewish group had the right to live where it wanted in the city.

"There are no Jerusalem settlements ... all of Jerusalem is under Israeli sovereignty since 1967," he said. "It is not so-called occupied land."

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat blamed Israel's government for supporting settlers.

"(The settlers) have taken the law into their own hands before; they are taking the law into their hands now with the assistance of the government," he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops dismantled an unauthorized settlement outpost near the West Bank town of Hebron. They scuffled with Jewish settlers who tried to stop the operation, but eventually a bulldozer crushed a makeshift synagogue on the hilltop. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered several more outposts to be removed in compliance with the U.S.-backed road map peace plan.

The timing is no accident, reports Berger: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet President Bush at the White House in two weeks.

Sharon said Tuesday he would hold a binding referendum within his hard-line Likud Party on his plan to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

A "no" vote, at a time when Sharon is also under investigation for alleged corruption, would leave him wounded politically, while a "yes" vote could be the final blow to Likud hard-liners who oppose territorial concessions.

A poll published Wednesday in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper showed 51 percent of Likud members support the plan, while 36 percent opposed it. The Dahaf Institute poll questioned 507 Likud members and had a 4.4 percent margin of error.

"I will bring these things to a democratic test," Sharon said of his plan.

Likud officials said the vote could take place in May, after Sharon returns from a trip to Washington.

The group that moved into the Silwan neighborhood Wednesday said the two buildings were bought by private investors interested in reviving the Yemenite village and in buying homes near Jerusalem's most hotly disputed holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.