In 2022, the Supreme Court intervened by “freezing” expropriations in the neighborhood long located at the center of strong tensions in East Jerusalem. A judge ordered the eviction of three families before July. Pressure from Nahalat Shimon, a pro-settlement group, is said to be behind the decision. The army ordered the confiscation of land north of Hebron, a UN note against settler violence.
Jerusalem () – The controversial issue regarding disputed properties in Sheikh Jarrah, a suburb of East Jerusalem, has a new chapter after a ruling handed down in recent days by an Israeli court, intended to fuel the controversy and confrontation between the parts. The judges ordered the forced eviction of three Palestinian families from their homes, giving their members – about 20 people in total, according to the Palestinian agency Wafa – until mid-July to leave their homes and move to another place, releasing the properties.
The dispute in Sheikh Jarrah, which has lasted for several decades, broke out in early May 2021, coinciding with a legal battle over the ownership of some homes, in which pro-colonial movements tried to expel Palestinian families. A fight that worries Holy Land Church and that three years ago also unleashed a bloody territorial warl between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. As explained the former Patriarchal Vicar of Jerusalem of the Latins, Monsignor Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, who still lives in the holy city today, the issue is the result of “Israel's project” of “occupying as much land and houses as possible in East Jerusalem “, reinforcing the “expropriation plans.” In March 2022, the company itself Supreme Court intervened, “freezing” the expropriations and putting the entire matter in the hands of the Israeli Ministry of Justice.
Saleh Diab, a member of one of the families affected by the eviction, reports that a hearing was held in the Jerusalem court of first instance in May last year. Despite the decision of the supreme judges, a magistrate decided to reopen the case due to pressure from the Nahalat Shimon group, linked to the settlers, which has been fighting for some time to try to evict the 28 Palestinian families from their homes – a total of about 500 people. – through a legal battle in court. Diab adds that these families have been living in the disputed homes for 56 years and have been fighting eviction attempts since 2009.
For the court, it would be an abusive and untitled occupation of the buildings, which are supposedly owned by Jews. By contrast, Palestinian families claim to have lived in the houses for decades. The Sheikh Jarrah complex was built on vacant land that, before the 1948 war, was owned by Jewish religious associations. After the conquest of East Jerusalem, the Israeli government passed laws that allowed it to reclaim properties seized from the Jordanian government in 1967. In reality, the law only allows it to reclaim properties controlled by Amman and attributable to enemy realities. But in cases where the Jordanian government has transferred ownership to individuals, they retain ownership and rights. The truth is that this saga has become one of the symbols of the permanent struggle between the different souls of the holy city, with inevitable political and confessional intermingling. In 2021, at the time of the protests – which later led to the brief but large-scale Gaza conflict, among those who played a key role was the extremist leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, then an opposition MP and now Minister of National Security.
These days' verdict comes at a time of great tension in Jerusalem over the Gaza war and the climbing ongoing with Iran, and the repeated episodes of violence in the West Bank, with murders and land seizures. In the last few hours, the Israeli army has issued an order to confiscate 64,000 square meters of land in the al-Bouira area, north of Hebron, the first step towards the construction of a new residential and industrial settlement for settlers. A decision that would cause the forced displacement of some 8,000 Palestinians living in the area. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights intervened against the policy of expropriations and forced displacement, calling on the Israeli security forces to “immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks against Palestinians.” “. A note linked to the escalation of attacks against towns and cities, triggered by the death of a 14-year-old Israeli boy and which has caused the death of seven Palestinians and the injury of 75 others. In addition to deaths and injuries, the attacks caused the fire of hundreds of houses and other buildings, as well as cars. “Israel, as an occupying power, must take all measures at its disposal,” the UN note concludes, “to restore and guarantee, to the extent possible, public order and security” in the West Bank.
