The Jerusalem District Court on Monday rejected an appeal filed by Palestinian families living in a building in the Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in East Jerusalem against two previous court orders that force them to give up their homes to extremist Jewish settlers, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.
The paper said Jewish settler groups filed lawsuits against the 87 Palestinians who make up the families living in the building, including children who have been living in the building since 1963, demanding they be evicted under the pretext that the property was owned by Jews before 1948.
Dozens of East Jerusalem Palestinians face eviction following settlers’ lawsuits https://t.co/Y1epMNB0lb
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) November 26, 2020
Haaretz said some of the Palestinian families who live in the building owned properties in the area prior to the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 but occupation authorities in the new state confiscated them under the Absentees’ Property Law, a legal instrument used by Israel to take possession of the land belonging to forcibly displaced Palestinians and the Muslim Waqf.
The paper quoted Peace Now activist Hagit Ofran as saying she fears settlers will expel the Palestinian families before US President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
