“No more fear”: Palestinians pledge to fight Jerusalem evictions New Israel-Palestine conflict

Occupied East Jerusalem – A district court in Jerusalem has postponed its ruling this week on an appeal filed by 44 Palestinian families, consisting of 44 Palestinian families, to evict them from their homes in the Batan al-Hawa area of ​​Silwan.

Palestinians say, however, that what they see as the “Judgment” of East Jerusalem, including expulsion, will continue – it’s just a matter of time.

Following the court’s ruling on Wednesday, the court ruled that the family, 19 of Batan al-Hawa’s families, had been evicted from their homes to allow Israeli settlers to live in the state of Israel before 1948. was established.

“The court will postpone the verdict because the situation is very tense in East Jerusalem, now due to Palestinian families in the face of expulsion in Sheikh Jarrah and raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque, ”said Al Jazeera Fakhri Abu Diabe, head of the Silwan land and real estate defense committee and a researcher on Jerusalem issues.

“With U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken today in the region is also not a good time to leave Palestinians homeless,” Abu Diabe said.

“However, the Israeli courts will side with the settlers in the future and the expulsions will continue.”

“No more fear”

Clashes broke out in Shekih Jarrah a few weeks ago, with Palestinians protesting to evict several families from their homes and clashing with Israeli security forces, resulting in numerous injuries and arrests.

Walid Husseini – the nephew of Faisal Husseini, who was a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1991 peace talks at the Madrid Conference – told Al Jazeera that this time the Palestinians will not give up when the deportations begin again.

“The situation on earth is similar to that of the first Intifada, in that more Palestinians are being politicized and no longer afraid,” said Husseini, a former journalist who was involved in the first Palestinian uprising.

“They have rejected the impotent Palestinian Authority as they previously rejected the corrupt Palestinian leadership of the PLO.

“They have realized that they need to take matters into their own hands because the international community will not put pressure on Israel.”

The Palestinian fear of judging East Jerusalem and the events on the ground confirm the fact that Jerusalem will unite and keep the capital of Israel forever.

The expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem in eastern Israel has been an ongoing process over the years, with periods of calm and backwardness as international criticism has intensified and pressure on Israel has increased.

The Israeli organization Peace Now said the planned evictions are part of a larger plan to evict about 100 families from Batan al-Hawaii by Israeli settler movements, in coordination with Israeli authorities, based on pre-1948 property claims.

Before 1948, some settlers living in the area were financially compensated by the Israeli government.

However, under Israeli law, internationally displaced Palestinians displaced from the West Green Line in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel have no right to compensation, nor do they have a legal right to reclaim their land.

‘Cancel all settlements’

The UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) has said pending deportations are part of Israeli law, including specific laws that make it easier to take possession of Israeli settlements.

A 2020 OCHA survey revealed that at least 218 Palestinians in East Jerusalem had filed eviction cases against them, most of them initiated by settler organizations, putting 970 people, including 424 children, at risk of displacement.

“Most of the new cases were identified in the Batan al-Hawa area of ​​Silwan, which is the community with the highest number of people at risk of displacement due to ongoing eviction cases,” he said OCHA.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a recent report that the Israeli authorities “must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities [occupied Palestinian territories] including East Jerusalem ”, reviewing the application of certain Israeli laws“ used as a basis for the eviction of Palestinians from their properties in East Jerusalem ”and“ to stop demolition and forced evictions ”.

The judgment in East Jerusalem goes beyond the expulsions and predictions that have taken place.

According to the UN, the Palestinians are fighting for building permits and can only build in 15% of the occupied East Jerusalem, even though they make up 40% of its population, and 30% in East Jerusalem is aimed at building illegal Israeli settlements.

The bureaucracy in the municipality of Jerusalem is restricting Palestinian building by constantly refusing to make specific urban construction plans for Palestinian neighborhoods (a prerequisite for obtaining building permits) to Palestinian neighborhoods, the Israeli group B’Tselem said.

The declaration of plots of land in East Jerusalem National Park further restricts access to Palestine and so far four national parks have been declared in the occupied part of the city.

Cancellation of residence

Israeli policy in East Jerusalem was aimed at pressuring the Palestinians to leave, thus creating a geographical and demographic reality that would frustrate any future attempt to question Israeli sovereignty there, B’Tselem said.

“Palestinians who leave East Jerusalem, because of this policy or for other reasons, are at risk of losing their permanent residence and the social benefits associated with it,” the organization said.

“Since 1967, Israel has denied the permanent residence of about 14,500 Palestinians in East Jerusalem in these situations.”

According to OCHA, Israeli measures have increasingly cut off East Jerusalem, which at the time was the focus of political, commercial, religious and cultural life for the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, from the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Muhammad, a Silwan professor who did not want his full name to be published, told Al Jazeera that Israelis were making life very difficult for Palestinians in the occupied East Jerusalem with massive arrests, discriminatory night attacks and city controls.

“I’m afraid of my family and I won’t allow my children, especially sons, to walk away, so I insist on taking them everywhere,” she said.

“I make sure they stay home the rest of the time, and I’m afraid to tell you the truth about the future of my children.”