Israel’s Central Court has decided to postpone the consideration of the petition of two Palestinian families against their forced eviction from the Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
On Thursday, the court delayed the hearing on behalf of the Al-Rajabi and Abu Nab families until early next month. Outside the court, Israeli police assaulted residents and members of the two families who gathered in a show of support. At least three people were arrested according to the Wafa news agency.
Israeli police arrested three Palestinians outside Jerusalem's district court today, during a protest in solidarity with Palestinian families facing forced displacement from Silwan's Batn al-Hawa neighborhood to be replaced by Jewish settlers.
Photos by @OrenZiv1985. pic.twitter.com/OCxeqoHPU6
— +972 Magazine (@972mag) June 10, 2021
There is growing concern that the neighborhood located in the Silwan area will be “the next Sheikh Jarrah”, as Israel attempts to Judaise these historic Arab neighborhoods with Jewish settlers.
The events in Sheikh Jarrah caused the worst violence in recent times between Jewish settlers and local Palestinians in the city and in the occupied West Bank, but also Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Despite the settler group’s claims that the land belonged to Yemeni Jews since 1881, during the Ottoman era, the courts have refused to take into consideration documents from the same era submitted by the families proving their right to the houses and the land on which they are built.
IOF prevents Silwan residents from protesting home demolitions outside a colonial court in occupied Jerusalem.
Not only are thousands of Palestinians confronting dispossession in Silwan, they’re expected to plead to settler judges against settlements. pic.twitter.com/lHpz8CBuup
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) June 10, 2021
Israeli courts have continuously ruled in favour of Ateret Cohanim’s claims, although residents have lodged appeals, the ruling has been repeatedly postponed, with the Supreme Court currently reviewing the case.
A member of one of the two affected families, Sharaf Ghaith, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the settler organisation’s assertions are based on “forged documents”, stressing that the family will not leave their home “whatever the price”.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
