Supreme Court Delays Hearing on East Jerusalem Evictions

Israel’s Supreme Court has delayed a hearing on the eviction of some 70 Palestinians from homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem.

The decision to delay the hearing announced on Sunday comes amid increasing violence in the neighborhood as well as in the Old City of Jerusalem and around the country over the issue.

Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit asked the Supreme Court to delay the case by two weeks to allow his office to present its opinion.

The hearing had been scheduled for Monday, which is Jerusalem Day celebrating the reunification of the city under Israeli control in 1967. The day is often fraught with tension in the city, some caused by a religious nationalist march through the Arab Quarter of the city.