The Israeli Supreme Court has proposed a ruling that would allow the four families facing forced eviction from Sheikh Jarrah to live as protected tenants under Israeli ownership for a period of up to 15 years or until the ownership case is settled.
More specifically, three families would be classified as first-generation tenants, allowing them to live in Sheikh Jarrah for two more generations. Meanwhile, the fourth family would be classified as second-generation tenants, allowing them to remain for only one more generation.
In return, these families would be forced to pay a symbolic yearly rent to the Nahalat Shimon Jewish settler company, which has continuously sought to claim ownership of the land and evict Palestinians. Thus, while the proposal states that the case for ownership is not affected, it actually plays a normative effect in recognizing the Jewish Company as the rightful owner of the land.
The court’s main aim is to create a deal that Palestinians would accept to avoid an eviction order from Nahalat Shimon, which could potentially trigger a universal backlash. After the global protests that took place this past May, the Israeli regime wants to avoid additional news coverage on Sheikh Jarrah that could lead to criticism from the international community.
While most of the proposal’s terms are agreeable, Palestinians refuse to forfeit their claim of ownership. If Palestinians accept the suggested deal, they would be acknowledging Nahalat Shimon’s ownership, rendering the case a private property dispute rather than a political one.
“The Israeli judiciary is intimidating these families by threatening them to take measures to expel them from their homes in November in case no agreement was reached with Nahalat Shimon,” said Fakhri Abu Diab, a resident of the Silwan neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, to Al-Monitor.
Moreover, Abu Diab speculates that even if an agreement is not reached, the Court may postpone the settlements to avoid undergoing any evictions, as was the case in other Jerusalem neighbourhoods, including Al-Bustan, Batn Al-Hawa, and Al-Khan Al-Ahmar.
Between 1950 and 1967, the Jordanian government held administrative rule over parts of Palestine, including East Jerusalem. Due to the Nakba in 1948, many Palestinian families became refugees. Consequently, in 1956, Jordan, with the support of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), relocated 28 of those families to the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood within East Jerusalem.
As part of the agreement, the relocated families would be granted ownership over their new properties once the three year period post-construction passed. However, due to the 1967 war, this was not honored. Instead, an Israeli law was passed in 1970, allowing two Jewish associations to claim ownership of the land via personal links traced back to the 1800’s.
The land was later sold to Nahalat Shimon, a Jewish settlement organization that has recently drawn up plans to build 200 housing units for Jewish families. This risks altering the future demographic of the city, which is illegal under international law.
Middle East Eye argues that “Under international law, an occupying state cannot forcibly transfer residents of occupied territories because it has an obligation to preserve the demographic composition of the inhabitants.”
“The decision of the Zionist court is totally and completely rejected,” said Nabil al-Kurd, one of the members of the four families facing eviction, to Al-Monitor. “We do not count on the decisions of the Israeli courts, which are based on forgery and circumventing the law, considering that they are political courts siding with the occupation and its settlers only.”
“Give us our properties back and we’ll leave Sheikh Jarrah,” said Mohammad Sabbagh, a member of the remaining three families, in 2019. He was referencing their homes in Jaffa, which they had been forced to flee during the Nakba. The Sabbagh family was given their first eviction notice in 2008 after having lived in Sheikh Jarrah since 1956.
Though the Court is pushing for the matter to be de-escalated to a private property settlement, the fight for ownership of land goes beyond this. Land ownership remains a political issue that Palestinians will continue to fight for in the years to come. It plays a major role in ensuring the right of return - allowing Palestinians to return, remain, and live in their lands.