Jews take over Jerusalem house from Palestinians

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jews took over another house in Arab East Jerusalem on Tuesday in what Palestinians say is a systematic campaign to drive them out and strengthen Israel's hold on all of Jerusalem.

The house, built 10 years ago by the al-Kurd family, is the seventh this year to be awarded to Jewish settlers following legal battles in the Israeli courts, where the Palestinians say a fair hearing is impossible to obtain.

The houses, in a predominantly Palestinian district, now fly the Israeli flag and are protected by men with guns.

The al-Kurd house was unoccupied and locked for eight years by court order pending settlement of a land-ownership dispute.

Police kept members of the family back as a dozen Israeli men removed furniture.

"They can go to Syria, Iraq, Jordan. We are six million and they are billions," said Yehya Gureish, an Arabic-speaking Yemen-born Jew who said his family owned the land and had Ottoman Empire documentation to prove it.

"This land is Israel. We are in Israel. God gave this land to the Jews. The Torah tells us so. You want war? Declare war on God, not on us," he said.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem after capturing the area in a 1967 war and regards all of the city as its capital, a claim not recognised internationally. Some 200,000 Jews live in East Jerusalem, alongside about 250,000 Palestinians.

Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they hope to create in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say they have little chance of winning property cases in Israeli courts or reclaiming land or homes in West Jerusalem and Israel.