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Sheikh Jarrah’s families are ‘determined’ despite uncertainty He occupied East Jerusalem

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Sheikh Jarrah, occupied East Jerusalem – The Palestinian residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood continue to live in uncertainty as the Israeli Supreme Court hopes to rule on the state of the lands that have been inhabited for generations.

On November 2, four Palestinian families unanimously faced forced relocations discard a court proposal requiring the settlers to accept ownership of the occupied lands in East Jerusalem where their homes are located.

Jerusalem lawyer Khaled Zabarqa told Al Jazeera that the Supreme Court will base itself on one of four options in a decision expected in a few days: to set up a new hearing for the lawyers’ arguments between the two sides, proposing or demanding a correct solution. a summary of the previous arguments of both parties.

The last option, he said, would be for the judge to make a decision with the available material and the appeals filed by the families.

Zabarqa said the court, Israel’s highest judicial authority, had been placed in a “real bond” after residents refused the final offer. The court, he explained, “hoped that both sides would accept the proposed solution so that it could come out with minimal losses.”

The court proposed an agreement last month to allow four Palestinian families to stay in their homes as “protected tenants” for 15 years while they pay rent to settlers who have claimed the land.

Clashes broke out between Palestinian youth and Israeli occupation forces, driven by court decisions after settlers arrived outside Palestinian homes and said the land did not belong to them and belonged to Jews.

In April and May, Sheikh Jarrah’s story gained international attention after protests against attempts to forcibly relocate Israeli neighbors.

“Palestinians will rise”

Mahmoud el-Kurd, the younger brother of twins Mona and Muhammad el-Kurd, activists behind the social media campaign against the expulsion of Palestinians, said the entire neighborhood is under tremendous pressure.

“The Israeli authorities are silent at the moment with renewed international attention, but when things go well they will resume their dismissals,” Mahmoud el-Kurd told Al Jazeera.

Despite the uncertain future, tension and fear, Sheikh Jarrah’s neighbors said they are full of determination and determination not to leave their homes.

“Palestinian Street will be with us again as early as this year,” el-Kurd told Al Jazeera. “My family is determined in their attitude.”

Compared to the El-Kurd family, the Attia family affirmed.

“Palestinians will rise up if the Israelis try to move forward with the eviction,” Nuha Attia, whose 25-year-old son has been jailed by Israeli forces for weeks in connection with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, told Al Jazeera. .

‘Justice in our case’

The Sheikh Jarrah family is an internal refugee, a Palestinian city and town that was originally ethnically cleansed in the 1948 Palestinian and Israeli wars. 700,000 to 165,000. The Israelis see their independence as a war.

It is said that the Jordanian government that took East Jerusalem in 1948 gave them land in the 1950s in exchange for the refugee status they later built in their homes. They have lived there ever since.

“This refusal stems from our faith in the justice of our case and our rights to our homes and homeland,” Mona el-Kurd said on behalf of other families facing the evictions at a news conference in the district on Nov. 2.

Israel uses laws that allow them to claim land and property that existed before 1948 while Israel does not apply the same right to Palestinians who were forced to be expelled from their homes to establish a Jewish Jewish majority. The settlers also question the authenticity of the documents proving the ownership of the land by Sheikh Jarrah.

At least 970 Palestinians are at risk of deportation due to cases brought before Israeli courts in East Jerusalem, mostly by Jewish settler groups, and support From the Israeli government, according to To the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (UNOCHA).

Demographic change

In July, Yudith Oppenheimer, executive director of the Israeli rights group Ir Amim, spoke to the UN Security Council highlighting the relocation of Palestinian families in the city. He said that since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and violated international law, the authorities have “used a system of discriminatory policies to weaken the strength of the Palestinian city.”

Oppenheimer noted that such policies include land theft, construction of illegal settlements, eviction of residences, as well as “inadequate provision of services and severe restrictions on planning and construction.” [occupied] East Jerusalem ”.

Critics say the settlers’ plans coincide with the Israeli-controlled demographics of the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality at the expense of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

The case of Sheikh Jarrah, according to a special UN rapporteur, “has become emblematic of the threats of forced displacement suffered by many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem with the aim of establishing a Jewish majority in the city and creating irreversible demographic events on the ground. ”.

Nufuz Hammad, 72, along with his family, including children and grandchildren, are under threat of displacement from their homes, despite having lived in the neighborhood since 1956.

“If the settlers made their way, they would load us into trucks and leave us on the coast,” Al Jazeera said.

“It’s stressful now to live here because we never know when the police will come again and when we will lose our house,” he said. “Young children are traumatized by situations and hide every time there are conflicts.”

Despite the difficulties of living in the neighborhood, Hammad said the residents are united. “We have our backs to each other and we hold each other in thick and thin,” he said.



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