As Israeli authorities are carrying out forced evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem, a Palestinian family has decided to appeal to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
On January 19, Israeli authorities forcefully evicted the Salhiya family from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem and demolished it, leaving 15 people homeless.
The Israeli District Court in Jerusalem rejected a petition by the Salhiya family to rebuild their home, demolished last week by the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem.
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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 27, 2022
Family lawyer Walid Abu-Tayeh confirmed to Al Jazeera that on January 24, the Saliya family held a Zoom meeting with their lawyers in London, “who are partnering with the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians [ICJP], in representing several other Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah.”
“We don’t know when the case will be brought before the ICC but it could take a long time,” Abu-Tayeh said, adding that “what made this all possible was an announcement in 2019 by the ICC prosecutor of the opening of an investigation” into alleged Israeli war crimes in occupied Palestine.
A Palestinian family on Tuesday was forced by the Israeli municipality to evacuate its home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tur, in preparation for demolishing it, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 27, 2022
Israeli municipality has been trying to evict the Palestinian families from their homes claiming it wants to use the land for public services, such as building a school. The families, however, accused the municipality of seeking to use the land to expand a nearby Jewish settlement at their expense.
A few days later, on January 25, Israeli authorities also demolished the house of the Karama family, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tur.
(The Palestine Chronicle Staff)
