Israeli troops have set up a military roadblock just outside Dahiyat AlSalam near the village of Anata in east Jerusalem. Palestinian residents of Dahitat AlSalam are being detained and forced to sign a document stating that they are unlawfully residing in the neighborhood.

In reality, the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Dahiyat AlSalam is the legal residence of some 36 Palestinian families, or about 200 individuals. Unlike other harassed Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, residents of Dahiyat AlSalam have obtained permits to build from the state of Israel and are owners of registered property, homes and shops.

Despite holding Palestinian identity cards, the residents of Dahiyat AlSalam have been paying property tax to the state of Israel for over 30 years. Nevertheless, these barriers, designed to forcibly drive people out, are constricting everyday movement of residents, who risk losing their homes if they travel out of their small neighborhood.

East Jerusalem is considered to be occupied territory captured in the 1967 war and illegally annexed by Israel in 1980. By forcibly driving residents out – while also expanding settlements, which now completely surround Palestinian east Jerusalem – Israel is undermining negotiations over the occupied city. These facts created on the ground by the occupation army is making any attempt to create a viable Palestinian state, as the international community is demanding, an impossibility.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) urges the international community to take concrete steps to put an end to Israel's policy of transfer against the Palestinians, and to provide immediate protection to the Palestinian people by deploying international monitors to Gaza and the West Bank including east Jerusalem.