[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: One interesting note - the PLO news agency
recognizes that the apartments in Silwan were legally purchased by Jews.]

Fatal Car Crash Rockets Tension in Jerusalem
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=26845

JERUSALEM, October 23, 2014 (WAFA - PLO news agency) – Israeli settlers at
midnight Thursday attacked Palestinian homes and vehicles in the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, forcing many Palestinians to stay home for
hours as settlers stoned families’ homes and damaged cars with clubs and
metal objects, according to witnesses.

The violent developments came only hours after a Palestinian driver rammed
his car into a crowd of Israeli commuters waiting at a railway stop, killing
at least one of them and injuring eight others before he was shot dead by
Israeli police. The driver, identified as Abdul-Rahman Shaloudi, 20, died of
his wounds minutes later.

Eslam Froukh, a Palestinian witness present at the scene, said that Israeli
police members fired about five bullets at Shaloudi, who was running away
from the accident scene.

Froukh said police fired the first bullet, which brought Shaloudi to a halt,
then fired another bullet after which he fell to the ground and another
three bullets were shot at him even though he was lying on in the street,
unarmed and injured.

While several eyewitnesses’ accounts indicate an inadvertent car crash, an
Israeli Police spokesperson said it was a deliberate attack.

The incident comes just days after the killing of 4-year-old Inas Dar
Khalil, a kindergarten girl who was deliberately run over and killed by an
Israeli settler near Ramallah on October 19. Five-year-old Toleen Asfour was
walking with Inas and sustained serious injuries in the same attack.

The offensive by Israeli settlers on Sheikh Jarrah and other district
neighborhoods in Jerusalem spurred clashes between Arab youth activists and
Israeli Police last night.

Around six Palestinians, including a 4-year-old girl, were reportedly
injured with rubber-coated metal bullets during the confrontations in the
provoked nearby Silwan neighborhood. They were transferred to hospital for
medical treatment, reported the Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC).

WHIC said police officers fired live ammunition and toxic gas canisters in
an effort to disperse the large number of Palestinian protesters who took to
the streets following Shaloudi’s murder.

Hours later, police stormed Shaloudi’s house, located in Silwan, and
sabotaged its furniture in reprisal to the car crash.

Clashes are on the rise across the Occupied East Jerusalem, said witnesses.

Silwan neighborhood continues to witness unrest after a group of Israeli
settlers occupied 10 apartments, which were purchased by a pro-Israeli group
that aims to facilitate Israeli settlers’ presence in East Jerusalem. The
former apartments’ owners were stunned upon knowing that their property was
later sold to Israeli settlers.

The latest attacks would trigger more tension to an already escalating
unrest which started around four months ago, when Jewish extremists
kidnapped teenager Mohammad Abu Khdeir, 17, from the Arab neighborhood of
Shuafat and burned him alive till death.

M.N/M.H