Israel orders Palestinians to vacate Jerusalem homes

An Israeli court has ordered Palestinian families to leave their homes in the holy city’s Silwan neighbour in order to create space for Israeli Jewish settlers.

According to the court which made the order last week, “the beneficiaries are settler associations who argued that the homes belonged to Jews before 1948″ .

Wadi Al-Hilwa Information Centre noted that the family of Izzat Salah was among them and it was given until 25th of November to evacuate its house.

The family has been living in the house since 1968. The landlord, Aref Al-Qara’een, claimed it in 2015 and sold it secretly to Elad settler organisation in 2017.

The family’s lawyer said that the Israeli Magistrate’s Court, Central Court and the High Court ruled in favour of Elad despite the fact that the family is classed as a “protected tenant”.

The Palestinian family said that it was subjected to repeated harassment over the past few years in order to concede their house.

Rights group Peace Now said, “For every dunam of land owned by Jews before 1948 that was lost in the war, there are hundreds of thousands of dunams of land in Israel that were owned by Palestinians before 1948 and were lost.”

“The settlers’ demand to evict Palestinians based on pre-1948 ownership is a strategic threat on the moral justification of hundreds of thousands of Israelis living on properties and lands that had belonged to Palestinians,” they added