Israel: Court suspends four Palestinian evictions in Sheikh Jarrah

Jerusalem - image ICN/JS

In an historic move, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled on Tuesday that four Palestinian families threatened with eviction from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, can remain for the time being.

The court ruled that the group, who together with 24 other families, have been at the centre of a decades-long dispute, can stay in their homes until an office within Israel's Ministry of Justice, carries out a land arrangement - a process that could take years or might not be carried out at all.

The Al-Askafi, Al-Ja'ouni, Al-Qasem and Al-Kurd families appealed to the Supreme Court after they lost their case against forced eviction in the Jerusalem District Court when it ruled in favour of Nahalat Shimon International, the settler organisation that claims ownership of the families' homes even though the families had been been given these homes by the UN agency for refugees (UNRWA) more than 70 years ago, after they were forcibly evicted from homes in Haifa, Sarafand and Jaffa by incoming Israeli settlers then.

Describing the decision as "significant" Sami Irshid, a lawyer representing the family said: "The decision of the Supreme Court today cancels the eviction while the issue of ownership is decided..The court decides that the past decisions regarding ownership do not apply, and the residents of Sheikh Jarrah can argue their ownership and prove their ownership."

In August, the families refused a "compromise" proposed by Israel's top court, in which they would be recognised as protected tenants in exchange for recognising Israeli ownership of their homes.

Professor Ronit Levine-Schnur of Reichmann University, who advised the Palestinian legal team, described the ruling as "a great victory for justice." He said the court's decision would immediately influence the pending cases of "at least three other Palestinian families" in the neighbourhood, with the potential to impact more cases further down the road.

The United Nations has repeatedly called for a halt to forced evictions and demolitions in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Under international humanitarian law, forcible transfers of protected persons by the occupying power are forbidden regardless of their motive.

Israeli campaign group Peace Now said in a statement recently: "This is a terrible injustice based on the cynical exploitation of a discriminatory law that allows Jews to exercise the 'right of return' to property lost to them in 1948, at the expense of Palestinian families legally living in the property, while another Israeli law denies the same right to Palestinians. This is exactly what the Mishnah says: "He who says: mine is mine and yours is mine, is called evil". The State of Israel, which took the Palestinian refugees' properties lost to them in 1948, cannot today allow settlers to take from Palestinians Jewish properties lost in 1948 and on which they are have already received compensation. The government can stop this evacuation, and it must do so."