The Palestinian Struggle for East Jerusalem: Families in Sheikh Jarrah Face Imminent Eviction, Imprisonment

July 14, 2009

Residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, composed of 28 Palestinian families, held a press conference yesterday (13 July 2009) appealing to the international community to help save their homes of over fifty years. Speakers included affected families, community leaders, International Solidarity Movement activists, Sheikhh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and the Consul-General of Great Britain, Richard Makepeace. The event was held at the tent of Um Kamel al-Kurd, who was violently evicted from her home in Sheikh Jarrah in November, 2008. Solidarity tents were erected in front of Israeli Consulates and Embassies all over the world yesterday in support of East Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah—in Glasgow, London, Egypt, Sweden, Demark, Spain, the Netherlands, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.

The press conference took place less than a week before the Hanoun and Ghawi families in the neighborhood must meet their final evictions orders to either "voluntarily" abandon their homes, or face fines of 50,000 NIS and $50,000 each, forceful eviction, and in one case imprisonment. On 19 July, the Hanouns and Ghawis will potentially share the unfortunate fate of Um Kamel al-Kurd; the remaining twenty-five families in the neighborhood live with the constant fear that their turn will soon follow.

For many years, the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah have battled Israeli settlers for control of their property. The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was erected jointly by the UN and Jordan in 1956, and was designated for use and ownership by Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Middle East War. However, Israeli settler organizations claim that their right to the land dates back further, and in 1972 they were able to falsely register the land as their own. In 1982, Israeli settler organizations began demanding rent from the Palestinian families of Sheikh Jarrah, who at that point had been living in the neighborhood for almost thirty years—and when a number of the families refused to pay this rent, the first eviction orders were issued.

The legal proceedings continued over the years, and in 2006 it was ruled by court that the settler organizations did not have rights to the land, and the Israeli land registration department agreed to revoke the settler associations’ ownership. However, this decision was overturned and Israeli authorities have ignored new documentation of land ownership obtained from the Turkish Archives, and have refused to recognize the Palestinian families’ property rights. Despite pending appeals and the lack of solid legal ownership of land in the neighborhood, the settler organizations sold their property claim in 2008 to an investment company that plans to demolish the 28 Palestinian homes and build 200 settlement units for new Jewish immigrants. Further, the Applied Research Institute, Jerusalem reports that two additional construction plans being currently reviewed by the Jerusalem Municipality would create an additional 150 housing units, for a total of 350 new housing units for Israelis, as well as a synagogue in Sheikh Jarrah.

Interestingly enough, the reasons given by the Jerusalem Municipality for the initial Sheikh Jarrah eviction notices vary among the families. In the case of Ibrahim Farhan, as reported by the Palestinian News Network, paying rent to the settler organizations was not enough to avoid eviction. Farhan, along with his wife and mother, was given eviction orders for his house as it is "abandoned". The court’s orders were based on the fact that the house is in the name of his brother, who lives in the nearby neighborhood of Beit Hanina; the Farhan family living in the house for over 60 years and meeting all of its financial obligations was irrelevant.

Equally noteworthy is the location of Sheikh Jarrah. According to ARIJ, the evictions and demolitions in Sheikh Jarrah would allow for a link between Mount Scopus and settlements in the area, and a variety of Israeli government institutions north of the Old City.