Wednesday’s pre-dawn takeover of two buildings in Jerusalem's Palestinian district of Silwan by some 15 armed Jewish settlers, accompanied by an infantry of Israeli troops, lead to the forcible eviction of several Palestinian families. This is merely another manifestation of a longstanding Israeli policy to change Jerusalem’s demographic character and geopolitical boundaries.

The practice, which includes the building of exclusively Jewish residential areas, has captured a countless number of Palestinian homes in and around the Old City. In December of 1987, Ariel Sharon, then Minister of Infrastructure, was among the first to resort to this insidious practice which clearly aims at eliminating the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.

The acquisitions are often non-kosher and disputable, as they disregard the complex status of the properties, such as in the case of the captured St. John’s hospice near the Holy Sepulcher that belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. On other occasions, the transactions are technically legal, but remain all the same a merely oblique measure to seize and eliminate the Palestinian character of the city.

As Israel continues to state that it will never relinquish any sector of the city it captured in 1967, and Sharon’s advisor Raanan Gissin proudly asserts that Jewish groups have the right to live any where they want in Jerusalem, settlers still have to practice that “right” with an omnipresent Israeli military and over-proportional security presence.

Wednesday’s seizure however had another contentious aspect to it, the claim of the right of return. The settlers, who are members of the Committee for the Renewal of the Yemenite Village in Shiloah — Hebrew for Silwan, said that their aim was to re-establish a Jewish presence in the neighborhood that dated back some 122 years ago, when a community of Yemenite Jews were living in the area.

While these settlers and their government invoke the right of return to justify their expansionist agenda, they find it incomprehensible to afford Palestinians, evicted and disposed in the course of Israel’s creation and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in ’67, the same right, or even acknowledge the right in principle.

The dispossession of Palestinians from their homes, and the eradication of Palestinian cities like Jerusalem and Hebron from their indigenous Palestinian character and heritage goes on unabated, and judging from Israel’s history and policies, it will continue to do so undeterred by anyone or anything.

That Israelis understand the rationale behind the right of return is clear, though settlers prefer a manipulative version. What is not clear is how long it will take Israelis to admit to themselves that it is impossible to deny Palestinians of that right.

Israel and Israelis, with the exception of a few in the peace camp, are apparently only ready to make peace with Palestinians when there are none left.