The Jerusalem District court yesterday ordered the eviction of Nasser Rajabi and his family from their home in the Batan Al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Centre, which monitors Israeli human rights violations in Jerusalem, said in a statement that the Al-Rajabi family’s property is a residential building consisting of three apartments housing 30 family members.
1/3 This week, a #Jerusalem Court ruled in favor of settler org Ateret Cohanim to evict the 22-member Rajabi family from their home in Batan al-Hawa, #Silwan. 18 families have already been evicted while 80+ other families face pending eviction demands. pic.twitter.com/Jz8QGf9dGF
— Ir Amim English Alerts (@IrAmimAlerts) January 24, 2020
According to the statement, the family has been locked in a legal battle over the ownership of its property since 2016.
The court gave the Al-Rajabi family until 1 April next year to leave the property.
In January, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered the family to leave their property following a lawsuit filed by the Ateret Cohanim settler association in the name of a Jewish trust from the late 19th century.
This is why we support the boycott movement. Israeli Forces Order Eviction of Palestinian Family as Israel Gears up for West Bank Annexation. https://t.co/9TVFFsnzIz
— Zaina Arekat (@ZainaArekat) June 22, 2020
Ateret Cohanim has filed dozens of lawsuits against some 100 Palestinian families living in Batan Al-Hawa, putting 700 people at risk of eviction under the pretext that in the late 19th century the land was allocated by its Jewish owners to a Jewish trust for the benefit of poor Yemenite Jews of Jerusalem.
However, Palestinians have land ownership documents that show their claim to the areas in question.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories (OCHA), “In recent decades, Israeli settler organizations, with the support of the Israeli authorities, have taken control of properties within Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and established settlement compounds.”
Rajabi was offered a blank cheque for his house by a Jewish settler.
For these East Jerusalem residents – now facing eviction – no amount of money could make them part with their homes https://t.co/QfrD6BSvsi pic.twitter.com/0PTCgdGjKT
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 5, 2019
“Palestinian houses have been transferred to settler organizations by various means. In some cases, settlers have pursued court cases to evict the Palestinian residents, on the grounds that the land or buildings were owned by Jewish individuals or associations in East Jerusalem prior to 1948,” OCHA said in a recent report.
(Palestine Chronicle, MEMO, Social Media)
