Dozens of activists gathered Tuesday morning at northern Jerusalem, in order to establish a new Jewish neighborhood in the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat. But despite the legality of the activity, the police prevented the Jews from entering the location and arrested activists.

"Instead of enforcing the law you are becoming a criminal police force," MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) shouted at the officers. "You should have been fighting for the Jews' right to reach their lands and instead you are a criminal police force," he repeated.

MK Effie Eitam (NU/NRP) added: "I know many Arab families that live in the heart of the Jewish French Hill neighborhood, they're renting a home, and nothing happens to them. What we're seeing here is the second division of Jerusalem – once they divide Jerusalem with the separation fence, and now, even what is inside the so-called Jewish part of Jerusalem is being divided by declaring that there are places here to which Jews have no access."

The property that is planned to become the “East Gate” Jewish neighborhood was purchased more than thirty years ago by a Jew who lives today outside of Israel and was taken over by Arab squatters over the years. Aryeh King, a Jerusalem activist, received power of attorney to retrieve the land in the name of the owners.