Eviction of 9 Palestinian Families from East Jerusalem by Israeli Police

[Neser Boha]

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Palestinians evicted in Jerusalem

Israeli police have evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in occupied East Jerusalem.

Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately. The US has urged Israel to abandon plans for a building project in the area.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, a move not recognised by the world community.

The evictions have been condemned by the United Nations, the Palestinians and also the UK government.

The US said the evictions were not in keeping with Israel's obligations under the so-called "road map" to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The operation to evict the 53 Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah district of the city was carried out before dawn on Sunday by police clad in black riot gear.

It followed a ruling by Israel's Supreme Court that Jewish families owned the land. Israel wants to build a block of 20 apartments in the area.

The evictions were quickly condemned by the United Nations.

"I deplore today's totally unacceptable actions by Israel," the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert H Serry said. "These actions are contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory.

The above was just an out-take, please do read the entire article, it's not that long.

At times it seems Israel really doesn't want any peaceful settlement to this 'conflict', doesn't it.

 

[Shogun]

popular thread! I wonder why our local zionists chose not to chime into THIS one....

 

[Anguille]

It followed a ruling by Israel's Supreme Court that Jewish families owned the land. Israel wants to build a block of 20 apartments in the area.

I would want to hear more about this but if the UN and the UK are condemning it and the US is not happy with it, it sounds serious.

 

[Anguille]

Even if this has nothing to do with the religion of the people living there, that they are being evicted from their homes that they've lived in for 50 years in order to build apartment buildings, something is not right about that

 

[Shogun]

antisemite.

 

[elvis]

popular thread! I wonder why our local zionists chose not to chime into THIS one....

I just found it.

 

[Anguille]

antisemite.

Somebody had to say it.

 

[Kalam]

Still not a lot of people chiming in.

 

[Anguille]

Kinda quiet in here.

 

[elvis]

Kinda quiet in here.

HEY!

 

[toomuchtime_]

Still not a lot of people chiming in.

There's not really much to say about it. A Sephardic Jewish community that had lived in east Jerusalem before Jordan captured it in 1948 held an Ottoman deed to the property, and while Israeli courts had previously recognized them as the legal owners, it gave the Arab families protected tenants' status, meaning they could not be evicted as long as they paid their rent and otherwise behaved according to tenants' obligations under Israeli law. The Jewish owners went back to court and claimed the Arab families had stopped paying rent and were refusing to pay rent in the future, so the eviction order was issued.

On the political side, Israeli Jews cite Jerusalem city records from the 1930's and 1940's that they claim show Jews were in the majority in east Jerusalem before they fled or were driven out when Jordan captured the city in 1948, so from their perspective, the Arabs are claiming east Jerusalem, in part, based on facts on the ground created by war while also denying Israeli claims to land on the same basis. Of course, the Israelis are doing the same thing with respect to the settlements.

 

[L.K.Eder]

Still not a lot of people chiming in.

There's not really much to say about it. A Sephardic Jewish community that had lived in east Jerusalem before Jordan captured it in 1948 held an Ottoman deed to the property, and while Israeli courts had previously recognized them as the legal owners, it gave the Arab families protected tenants' status, meaning they could not be evicted as long as they paid their rent and otherwise behaved according to tenants' obligations under Israeli law. The Jewish owners went back to court and claimed the Arab families had stopped paying rent and were refusing to pay rent in the future, so the eviction order was issued.

On the political side, Israeli Jews cite Jerusalem city records from the 1930's and 1940's that they claim show Jews were in the majority in east Jerusalem before they fled or were driven out when Jordan captured the city in 1948, so from their perspective, the Arabs are claiming east Jerusalem, in part, based on facts on the ground created by war while also denying Israeli claims to land on the same basis. Of course, the Israelis are doing the same thing with respect to the settlements.

can you support anything you wrote with hard evidence? the lawsuit history? i'd like to read that.

 

[L.K.Eder]

popular thread! I wonder why our local zionists chose not to chime into THIS one....

you really are a troll when it comes to israel stuff.

 

[elvis]

popular thread! I wonder why our local zionists chose not to chime into THIS one....

you really are a troll when it comes to israel stuff.

He lives for these Israel threads.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

Brutal colonialism continues unabated in the Occupied territories.

But hey, when you need Lebensraum, you need Lebensraum, huh?

 

[Shogun]

popular thread! I wonder why our local zionists chose not to chime into THIS one....

you really are a troll when it comes to israel stuff.

Had I not made a point to draw attention to this thread it would have vanished into the ether with nary a fucking post.

In fact, you are posting in this thread BECAUSE I trolled it. Welcome to the machine.

 

[Shogun]

popular thread! I wonder why our local zionists chose not to chime into THIS one....

you really are a troll when it comes to israel stuff.

He lives for these Israel threads.

it's too bad israel is such an easy target. Are you feeling picked on like a white South Africaner circa 1984?

 

[toomuchtime_]

Still not a lot of people chiming in.

There's not really much to say about it. A Sephardic Jewish community that had lived in east Jerusalem before Jordan captured it in 1948 held an Ottoman deed to the property, and while Israeli courts had previously recognized them as the legal owners, it gave the Arab families protected tenants' status, meaning they could not be evicted as long as they paid their rent and otherwise behaved according to tenants' obligations under Israeli law. The Jewish owners went back to court and claimed the Arab families had stopped paying rent and were refusing to pay rent in the future, so the eviction order was issued.

On the political side, Israeli Jews cite Jerusalem city records from the 1930's and 1940's that they claim show Jews were in the majority in east Jerusalem before they fled or were driven out when Jordan captured the city in 1948, so from their perspective, the Arabs are claiming east Jerusalem, in part, based on facts on the ground created by war while also denying Israeli claims to land on the same basis. Of course, the Israelis are doing the same thing with respect to the settlements.

can you support anything you wrote with hard evidence? the lawsuit history? i'd like to read that.

I haven't examined court records, if that's what you mean, but I have found consistent accounts of the legal history in media accounts.

The houses were built in the 1950s by a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees when the area was under Jordanian control. Jordan gave the families ownership of the houses but had not formally registered the buildings in their names by the time the 1967 war broke out, according to the families’ lawyer, Hosni Abu Hussein.

In the early 1970s, a Jewish association claimed ownership of the land around the tomb, based on property deeds from Ottoman times. At first the Palestinian families agreed to pay rent to the association to continue living there as protected tenants. Mr. Abu Hussein said they stopped paying when he learned that the Jewish deeds had been forged.

Eviction orders were issued, though the authenticity of the property deeds is still debated in Israeli courts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/middleeast/03israel.html

The eviction came at the end of a long legal process. The families, Hannun and Gawi, say they are refugees from Palestinian neighborhoods in West Jerusalem who lost their homes in the War of Independence.

They were housed by the UN and the Jordanian authorities in East Jerusalem homes that previously belonged to a Sephardic community committee. Israeli courts acknowledged the committee's ownership of the houses, but provided a protected tenant status for the residents.

However, the committee, which supports the Jewish families' bid for the homes, had since claimed that the Palestinian families violated the agreement and demanded their eviction.

U.S. condemns eviction of Arab families from East Jerusalem - Haaretz - Israel News

The issue seems to be the result of the recent bad relations between Turkey and Israel. Although the Ottoman deeds the Jews had presented in the 1970's went unchallenged all these years, since the breakdown in relations between the two countries Turkey gave Palestinian lawyers access to their archives for the first time, and some of these lawyers claim they have proof the Ottoman deed for this property and similar Ottoman deeds for other properties in east Jerusalem are forgeries and they presented their arguments to an Israeli court back in March. Although I haven't followed the history of this forgery argument the fact that that court issued the eviction order seems to indicate it did not consider the evidence of forgery convincing.

 

[Anguille]

There's not really much to say about it. A Sephardic Jewish community that had lived in east Jerusalem before Jordan captured it in 1948 held an Ottoman deed to the property, and while Israeli courts had previously recognized them as the legal owners, it gave the Arab families protected tenants' status, meaning they could not be evicted as long as they paid their rent and otherwise behaved according to tenants' obligations under Israeli law. The Jewish owners went back to court and claimed the Arab families had stopped paying rent and were refusing to pay rent in the future, so the eviction order was issued.

On the political side, Israeli Jews cite Jerusalem city records from the 1930's and 1940's that they claim show Jews were in the majority in east Jerusalem before they fled or were driven out when Jordan captured the city in 1948, so from their perspective, the Arabs are claiming east Jerusalem, in part, based on facts on the ground created by war while also denying Israeli claims to land on the same basis. Of course, the Israelis are doing the same thing with respect to the settlements.

can you support anything you wrote with hard evidence? the lawsuit history? i'd like to read that.

I haven't examined court records, if that's what you mean, but I have found consistent accounts of the legal history in media accounts.

The houses were built in the 1950s by a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees when the area was under Jordanian control. Jordan gave the families ownership of the houses but had not formally registered the buildings in their names by the time the 1967 war broke out, according to the families’ lawyer, Hosni Abu Hussein.

In the early 1970s, a Jewish association claimed ownership of the land around the tomb, based on property deeds from Ottoman times. At first the Palestinian families agreed to pay rent to the association to continue living there as protected tenants. Mr. Abu Hussein said they stopped paying when he learned that the Jewish deeds had been forged.

Eviction orders were issued, though the authenticity of the property deeds is still debated in Israeli courts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/middleeast/03israel.html

The eviction came at the end of a long legal process. The families, Hannun and Gawi, say they are refugees from Palestinian neighborhoods in West Jerusalem who lost their homes in the War of Independence.

They were housed by the UN and the Jordanian authorities in East Jerusalem homes that previously belonged to a Sephardic community committee. Israeli courts acknowledged the committee's ownership of the houses, but provided a protected tenant status for the residents.

However, the committee, which supports the Jewish families' bid for the homes, had since claimed that the Palestinian families violated the agreement and demanded their eviction.

U.S. condemns eviction of Arab families from East Jerusalem - Haaretz - Israel News

The issue seems to be the result of the recent bad relations between Turkey and Israel. Although the Ottoman deeds the Jews had presented in the 1970's went unchallenged all these years, since the breakdown in relations between the two countries Turkey gave Palestinian lawyers access to their archives for the first time, and some of these lawyers claim they have proof the Ottoman deed for this property and similar Ottoman deeds for other properties in east Jerusalem are forgeries and they presented their arguments to an Israeli court back in March. Although I haven't followed the history of this forgery argument the fact that that court issued the eviction order seems to indicate it did not consider the evidence of forgery convincing.

It's very sad when anyone loses their home, no matter what the justification. Especially one they've lived in for a long time. This was a second eviction for them. I wonder where the families went. I wonder if new housing was provided for them.

Thanks for providing the info.

 

[PoliticalChic]

There's not really much to say about it. A Sephardic Jewish community that had lived in east Jerusalem before Jordan captured it in 1948 held an Ottoman deed to the property, and while Israeli courts had previously recognized them as the legal owners, it gave the Arab families protected tenants' status, meaning they could not be evicted as long as they paid their rent and otherwise behaved according to tenants' obligations under Israeli law. The Jewish owners went back to court and claimed the Arab families had stopped paying rent and were refusing to pay rent in the future, so the eviction order was issued.

On the political side, Israeli Jews cite Jerusalem city records from the 1930's and 1940's that they claim show Jews were in the majority in east Jerusalem before they fled or were driven out when Jordan captured the city in 1948, so from their perspective, the Arabs are claiming east Jerusalem, in part, based on facts on the ground created by war while also denying Israeli claims to land on the same basis. Of course, the Israelis are doing the same thing with respect to the settlements.

can you support anything you wrote with hard evidence? the lawsuit history? i'd like to read that.

I haven't examined court records, if that's what you mean, but I have found consistent accounts of the legal history in media accounts.

The houses were built in the 1950s by a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees when the area was under Jordanian control. Jordan gave the families ownership of the houses but had not formally registered the buildings in their names by the time the 1967 war broke out, according to the families’ lawyer, Hosni Abu Hussein.

In the early 1970s, a Jewish association claimed ownership of the land around the tomb, based on property deeds from Ottoman times. At first the Palestinian families agreed to pay rent to the association to continue living there as protected tenants. Mr. Abu Hussein said they stopped paying when he learned that the Jewish deeds had been forged.

Eviction orders were issued, though the authenticity of the property deeds is still debated in Israeli courts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/middleeast/03israel.html

The eviction came at the end of a long legal process. The families, Hannun and Gawi, say they are refugees from Palestinian neighborhoods in West Jerusalem who lost their homes in the War of Independence.

They were housed by the UN and the Jordanian authorities in East Jerusalem homes that previously belonged to a Sephardic community committee. Israeli courts acknowledged the committee's ownership of the houses, but provided a protected tenant status for the residents.

However, the committee, which supports the Jewish families' bid for the homes, had since claimed that the Palestinian families violated the agreement and demanded their eviction.

U.S. condemns eviction of Arab families from East Jerusalem - Haaretz - Israel News

The issue seems to be the result of the recent bad relations between Turkey and Israel. Although the Ottoman deeds the Jews had presented in the 1970's went unchallenged all these years, since the breakdown in relations between the two countries Turkey gave Palestinian lawyers access to their archives for the first time, and some of these lawyers claim they have proof the Ottoman deed for this property and similar Ottoman deeds for other properties in east Jerusalem are forgeries and they presented their arguments to an Israeli court back in March. Although I haven't followed the history of this forgery argument the fact that that court issued the eviction order seems to indicate it did not consider the evidence of forgery convincing.

It was interesting to read the other side of the situation, and a clarification.

Thanks for the work.

BTW, I tried to apply rep, but wasn't allowed.