By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
A Jerusalem Arab whose house falls on the Palestinian side of the security barrier Israel is building on the outskirts of the city climbed up to the roof of his home with his family Sunday, and threatened to kill himself by exploding a gas canister, police said.
The early-afternoon drama in the city's Shuafat refugee camp ended peacefully, after a police negotiating team successfully cajoled the man to come down from the roof.
He was subsequently detained by police for questioning.
The outlying Jerusalem neighborhood, located on the city's northern rim, is one of at least five Jerusalem Arab villages which are slated to fall on the Palestinian side of the barrier when it is completed next year, much to the dismay and anger of tens of thousands of local Arab residents who want to remain on the Israeli side of the barrier in order to maintain the freedom of movement that living in Jerusalem affords them.
Earlier this year, a 35-year-old Jerusalem Arab was arrested for allegedly attempting to bribe an Israeli border police officer to reroute the security barrier going up near his east Jerusalem home so that his house would fall on the Israeli side of the fence.