Silwan Activists Ask EU for Protection Against Israel's Actions

Activists from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan sent a letter on Monday to European Union consuls in the city asking them for protection against Israel actions in the area.

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The letter also requested that Palestinian activist Adnan Jith, who was recently banned from his native Jerusalem for four months, be granted political asylum.

The Israel Defense Forces Home Front commander invoked last month a rare, British Mandate-era statute to ban Adnan Jith, a Silwan resident, from Jerusalem, saying he threatens the public order. His expulsion was postponed while he appealed, however he must now leave Jerusalem by Jan. 12.

The letter followed the publication of a report compiled by heads of European diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah in which they concluded that East Jerusalem should be treated as the capital of a Palestinian state, and included several other unprecedented recommendations to the European Union regarding its attitude toward East Jerusalem.

The European diplomats, mainly consuls, also recommended that EU officials and politicians refuse to visit Israeli government offices that are located beyond the Green Line and that they decline any Israeli security in the Old City and elsewhere in East Jerusalem.

The activists wrote in the letter about the deterioration in relations between the municipality and police in the city, since the killing of Silwan resident Samir Sarhanover three months ago.

The activists also urged the European diplomats to launch an international investigation into events taking place in East Jerusalem.