Thousands of Israelis rally against Palestinian evictions

Around 5,000 Arab and Jewish peace activists flocked to Sheikh Jarrah in one of the largest rallies yet against the evictions.

Protesters, including several communists and other members of the Hadash Front for Peace and Equality, marched under red banners and Palestinian flags, chanting: "Sheikh Jarrah residents don't lose hope, we are blocking the road to settlement" and "There is no sanctity in an occupied city."

Last week activists asked the Jerusalem police for permission to hold a large rally in the street leading to a contested house.

But the police refused, instead approving a much smaller gathering at a football field situated 300 metres from the home.

The activists were forced to hold their rally in the field, which is surrounded by a wall, cannot be seen from the outside and is entirely cut off from the area near the contested home.

About 200 rightwingers held a counter-demonstration nearby.

Tenacious Israeli peace campaigners have demonstrated in Sheik Jarrah every Friday since Israeli troops evicted two families - the Gawis and Hanouns - from their homes there in August, after Israeli judges ruled that Israeli Jews owned the properties.

Jewish families have now moved into those homes.

But Tel Aviv's illegal annexation of east Jerusalem has never been recognised by the international community, which has earmarked it as the future state of Palestine's capital.

The Gawis and Hanouns families insist that the property still belongs to them.

Demonstrators said that the Israeli court's ruling in favour of the Jewish claimants was "discriminatory."

An activist at the demonstration said: "We are supposedly living in a democratic country, but the law is being applied unequally.

"If the idea of returning to homes from pre-1948 were followed through equally, there would be Palestinians, perhaps even some who are here tonight, who would return to their homes in west Jerusalem," she said.

MP Dov Khenin, a leading member of the Communist Party of Israel, pointed out that any political agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would entail Jerusalem's division.

"These settlements are aimed at preventing peace," Mr Khenin observed.