JERUSALEM, November 14, 2017 (WAFA) – The Israeli High Court ruled on Tuesday that power supply to all residents of East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is the responsibility of the Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO),

a private Palestinian venture, defeating as a result attempts by Israeli settlers who moved into the area by force to get power from the Israel Electricity Company (IEC).

JDECO general manager, Hisham Omari, said the High Court issued a final order confirming the right of his company to maintain supplying Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of power as part of its concession area and that the IEC has no right to provide power to any household in that neighborhood.

He said legally, no resident within JDECO’s concession area is allowed to approach the IEC to provide them with service.

A handful of Jewish settlers who took over Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood after forcing their Palestinian residents to leave them have petitioned the Israeli High Court to allow them to get electric current from the Israeli company instead of the Palestinian one, which Omari said was intended to create a precedent in occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods as a prelude to end the Palestinian company’s operation in the city.