RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Jerusalem, 15 February 2022. Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir inspects his office in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem.

STORYLINE:

Israeli settlers Tuesday overnight vandalized a number of Palestinian vehicles in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, according to WAFA correspondent.

She said that dozens of settlers broke into the neighborhood, which became a scene of massive protests against Israel’s settler-colonialism in the occupied territories, and went on a rampage, smashing the windshields of several Palestinian vehicles despite the fact that Israeli police have been closing the area for three days now.

Tensions have been running high in the neighborhood as extreme right-wing Israelis led by lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir set up an office there and announced that the time has come to purge the land, a reference to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

Ben Gvir is notorious for being a member of the “Kach” terrorist movement, which carried out many massacres against Palestinians, most notably the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. Despite being a prominent member of the terrorist movement, Ben Gvir was not arrested by police and has become a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

The neighborhood has become a scene of massive protests against Israel’s settler-colonialism in the occupied territories since the Israeli occupation authorities decided to forcibly expel dozens of families from their houses in favor of colonial settler groups.

Palestinians have maintained that the Israeli authorities decision to “evict” the families from their houses in favor of the settler groups is politically-motivated and comes as part of Israel’s efforts to ethnically cleanse Jerusalemite Palestinians.

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