
  
The U.S. State  Department has summoned Israel Ambassador Michael Oren over “unacceptable” and  “provocative” evictions of Arabs from Jewish-owned homes in the Sheikh Jarreh  neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem. In a possible effort to try to lower the heat  on Israel, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffery Feltman, instead of Secretary  Hillary Clinton, summoned Oren.
The U.S., like most of the Western world,  does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem neighborhoods, including  the Old City and the Western Wall (Kotel), that were restored to the Jewish  State in the Six-Day War in 1967.
Secretary Clinton earlier this week  charged that the evictions of Arabs are “deeply regrettable” and violate Israeli  obligations of the American Roadmap plan, although she did not cite any specific  reference in the Roadmap to removing illegal residents. Israel has previously  expelled thousands of Jews from homes which they owned in Judea, Samaria and  Gaza, but these areas also are not recognized by the U.S. as part of  Israel.
The State Department did not reply to Oren’s statement that the  homes where Arabs were evicted are owned by Jews, who bought them during the  British Mandate before the War for Independence in 1948. Arabs claim they bought  the properties in 1958 during the Jordanian occupation.
The Obama  administration, which has taken aim at all construction for Jews in parts of the  capital restored to the city in 1967 as well as in Judea and Samaria, focused on  eastern Jerusalem last month when it was revealed that a Jewish owner of the  abandoned Shepherd Hotel, also located in Sheikh Jarreh, plans to build 20  apartments on the property.
Oren was not the only envoy to be summoned  over the evictions. Sweden, which currently serves as the rotating president of  the European Union, rebuked Israeli Ambassador Benny Dagan. In return, the  Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to Israel.
Oren recently  pointed out that even if Israel were to agree to the American demand to freeze  construction for Jews, he is not sure that the Arab world would reach out for  talks with Jerusalem.
“So Israel can freeze settlements tomorrow  -- we plucked up 21 settlements out of Gaza two years ago, and you know I was  there, it was the most traumatic event of my military career, pulling Jews out  of their houses -- we did that, and we turned around and got 7,200 rockets fired  at us,” Oren told the Atlantic magazine last week.
“Settlements are not  the issue,” he added. “The issue is the recognition of the mutual legitimacy of  these two peoples, the legitimate claim to these two states. “