OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel delayed a decision Monday in the case
of Palestinians facing expulsion by Israeli settlers in occupied East
Jerusalem, an issue that exploded into armed conflict in May.
اضافة اعلان
Palestinians said the offer was made that they remain in their properties in
the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as "protected tenants" who would recognize
Israeli ownership of the homes and pay a symbolic annual rent, but they
refused.
"They placed a lot of pressure on us to reach an agreement with the
Israeli settlers in which we would be renting from the settler organizations,"
said Muhammad Al-Kurd, from one of four Palestinian families at the heart of
the case.
"Of course, this is rejected," he said.
Justice Isaac Amit called for further documentation and said, "we will
publish a decision later", but without setting a date.
Monday's hearing was part of a years-long legal battle waged by Jewish
Israeli organizations trying to reclaim property owned by Jews in occupied east
Jerusalem prior to 1948.
Palestinians say Jordan granted them homes on the property after they were
expelled from towns that were occupied by Israel.
Lawyer Sami Irshid, representing the Palestinians, insisted on Monday that
his clients would reject the Jewish Israeli claims in any arrangement.
"We are willing to be listed as protected tenants while retaining our
rights," he said in court. "We will request recognition of the property
rights the government of Jordan gave us."
Ilan Shemer, representing the Israelis, said: "This arrangement will be
an empty arrangement."
The case has become an international cause, with dozens of people
demonstrating outside the court on Monday.
11-day Gaza war
Clashes in May over possible Sheikh Jarrah evictions spread to Jerusalem's
Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, sparking an Israeli crackdown that escalated into an
11-day war between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The families in Monday's case appealed to the supreme court after two lower
courts ruled that under Israeli property law, the homes in question belonged to
the Jewish owners who purchased the plots before 1948.
In 1956, when east Jerusalem was under Jordanian control, Amman leased plots
of land to families in Sheikh Jarrah, and the UN agency for Palestinian
refugees built homes for them.
Jordan promised to register the properties in their names but did not
complete the process before Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed
it in a move never recognized by the international community.
In 1970, Israel enacted a law under which Jews could reclaim land in east
Jerusalem they lost in 1948, even if Palestinians by then already lived on it.
No such option exists for Palestinians who lost homes or land.
Jerusalem deputy mayor Arieh King, who supports the Jewish Israeli claims in
the neighborhood, decried the court's delay.
"As long as the court drags this on, there is more room for Arabs to
make riots," King told AFP.
Instead, he said the court should rule the land is Jewish "and end of
story".
The Palestinians' lawyer Irshid told AFP after the hearing "there is
reason for optimism".
Israeli anti-settlement group Ir Amim says that more than 1,000 Palestinians
are at risk of losing their homes to Jewish settler groups and individuals in
Sheikh Jarrah and the Silwan neighborhood of occupied east Jerusalem.
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