Next Wednesday, 26/5/21 at 10:30 a.m., the district court is expected to hear appeals from seven Palestinian families with 44 people, from Batan Al-Hawa, Silwan, whose Magistrate’s Court ruled to evict them from their homes in favor of the settlers. The eviction claims are part of a move to evacuate about 100 families from Batan Al-Hawa by settlers, and are based on ownership claims from before 1948, similar to the eviction claims in Sheikh Jarrah.
Since the beginning of 2020, the courts have ruled on the eviction of 19 families of 107 people from Batan Al-Hawa, in seven different eviction claims. All the families have appealed the decision and are in various stages of appeal to the district court or the Supreme Court. Recently, the Supreme Court sought the Attorney General’s position on the Duweik family’s request to appeal, following which the Supreme Court ruled in the Odeh and Shweiki families’ appeal that it would also await the Attorney General’s response in the Duweik case. The deadline for submitting the AG’s response is currently 31/5/21. Meanwhile, the hearing of the appeals in the district court continues as usual, and as for now, next Wednesday, two appeals of 7 families are expected to be heard.
Peace Now: The ball is now in the hands of the government. The court sought the government’s position, and it can and should order the Attorney General to express a legal position that would prevent the injustice of evicting hundreds of Jerusalem residents from their homes, whose only crime is that they live in the area where the settlers want to establish a settlement. To the extent that settlers have pre-1948 property rights, they should have rights to compensation, but not to evict families who have lived in the property for decades and legally purchased it. The State of Israel stipulated in the law that Palestinian property lost in 1948 would not be returned to its owners, and it is unjust that the discriminatory law that allows Jews to return property from before 1948 would be used by ideological settlers to displace entire communities in East Jerusalem for settlement.
One appeal is that of the Nasser Rajabi family home – 3 nuclear families with 18 people – for more see here.
The second appeal is of the house of the ‘Abd al-Fatah Rajabi family – 4 nuclear families with 26 people – for more see here.
Members of the Nasser Rajbi family opened their home and recently told us how they live in the shadow of the threat of evacuation, watch the video: