RESTRICTION SUMMARY: APAwire CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST: APAwire - APAwire CLIENTS ONLY, Jerusalem - 17 December 2021. Israeli security forces clash with Palestinian protesters following a protest against confiscated alot by Israeli settlers, in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah


STORYLINE:

The Salem family (11 people), who have lived in a house in western Sheikh Jarrah (“Um Haroun”) for more than 70 years, received a notice of eviction a few days ago stating that they must vacate the house immediately, and if they do not evacuate themselves, they will be forcibly evicted on 29/12/21 or at a later date. The eviction notice was handed to the family earlier this week by two key settlement activists in Sheikh Jarrah, city council members Aryeh King and Jonathan Yosef, who claimed they had purchased the house from Jewish owners who had owned the house before 1948.

1951 – At the end of the war, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was under Jordanian control and the Jewish property in the area was managed by the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Properties. The Jordanian Custodian leased the properties to Palestinian families under a protected tenancy agreement. According to the Salem family, the family members moved into the house as early as 1951, renting it from the Jordanian Custodian in a protected tenancy agreement. Fatma Salem was born in this house in 1952, and lives there till today with her three children, their wives and children (a total of 11 persons including 4 children).

1967 – Immediately after the 1967 war, the Israeli government annexed the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to Israel, along with the rest of East Jerusalem, and transferred the management of these assets to the Israeli General Custodian. The General Custodian continued to lease the properties to Palestinian residents.

1970 – In 1970, the Knesset enacted the Legal and Administrative Matters Law (1970), which effectively stipulated that Jewish property owners who lost their property in East Jerusalem in 1948 could get it back from the General Custodian. In practice, there were no Jewish property owners who returned to live in their homes in East Jerusalem. This law was used only by settlers who used it to deprive Palestinians of their property and replace them with Jewish settlers.

1980s – Sometime in the 1980s, the heirs of the Jewish family that owned the house before 1948 received the property from the General Custodian. The Salem family continued to live in the rented property, and pay rent to the owners. At one point the owners sued the Salem family for eviction, and in 1988 it was ruled that she had to vacate the house, but for reasons unknown to us the judgment was not enforced and the family continued to live on the property.

In recent years, settler activists have purchased at least parts of the property from the Jewish family, and they are the ones now demanding the eviction. On 5/12/21, Jonathan Joseph and Aryeh King, two key settlement activists in the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and city council members arrived at the Salem family home and handed her the eviction notice. The message came without warning and left the family with only about three weeks to get organized for evacuation. The family’s lawyers are examining whether there is a possibility of fighting the eviction in the legal field.

Footage by/APAwire