[News] Sheikh Jarrah: Can a new 'popular solidarity' save the neighbourhood from evictions?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-jerusalem-sheikh-jarrah-what-next-after-palestinians-reject-court-deal>
Sheikh
Jarrah: Can a new 'popular solidarity' save the neighbourhood from
evictions?
By Aseel Jundi in Jerusalem - November 7 2021
------------------------------

Palestinian <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine> families
facing expulsion from their homes in the occupied East Jerusalem
neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah are currently considering their next step
after they rejected an Israeli
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> court's proposal that
would eventually lead to their eviction in favour of Jewish settlers.

Saleh Diab, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah who is threatened with eviction,
told Middle East Eye that the Palestinian refusal of the compromise offered
by the court is an appropriate decision as the settlers themselves also
refused it.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sheikh-jarrah-evictions-israel-palestinians-reject-deal-settlers>

Sheikh Jarrah evictions: Palestinians reject Israeli court deal with
settlers

Read More »
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sheikh-jarrah-evictions-israel-palestinians-reject-deal-settlers>

The settlers are seeking a definitive ruling by the court, ordering
immediate eviction of the Palestinian residents and acknowledging the
settlers' right of ownership to property in the neighbourhood.

Diab described the ruling proposed by the highest judicial authority in
Israel as "a trap". He says, however, that the residents should feel
comfortable because the rest of the Palestinian people are standing in
solidarity with them.

"The Palestinian resistance also pledged its readiness to wage a new war in
case the Israeli occupation proceeds with its crime of evacuating the
neighbourhood," Diab said.

Although Diab does not believe that any of the families will be evicted
soon, he predicts that the restriction and harassment of the residents will
increase following their refusal of the compromise.

In fact, he said, the harassment had already begun with the decision by the
Municipality of Jerusalem to build a nursery school for Jewish children.
This is in addition to a plethora of arbitrary decisions to confiscate
property and to hand eviction orders to residents in the western part of
the neighbourhood.

[image: saleh diab sheikh jarrah resident november 2021 mee]
Saleh Diab speaks to MEE from his home in Sheikh Jarrah, 4 November 2021
(MEE/Aseel Jundi)

The case is getting more complicated by the day as the Israeli settlers
continue to claim ownership of an 18 dunum property that hosts 500
Palestinian refugees who were given housing units in the Karm al-Jaouni
neighbourhood by the Jordanian government and the UN Agency for Palestinian
Refugees (UNRWA).

On 2 November, the residents declared
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sheikh-jarrah-evictions-israel-palestinians-reject-deal-settlers>
their refusal of a compromise proposed by Israel's Supreme Court which
would enable them to stay in their homes as protected tenants under the
Nahalat Shimon Jewish settler company in a prelude to expropriating their
property by degrees.

The Palestinians accuse the court of evading the responsibility of reaching
a final ruling, yet coercing them to choose between eviction from their
homes or succumbing to a malicious deal.

Palestinians see this as an extension of the colonial policies that aim to
disrupt the social solidarity they have achieved since May during the
latest popular protest movement.

They also consider such recourse as an attempt to conceal what they say
amounts to "ethnic cleansing
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israels-ethnic-cleansing-was-not-historical-exception-palestine-it-happening-today>"
committed by Israel and its settlers.

The Palestinian residents hold the Israeli government accountable for the
expropriation of their homes, but they also extend the same responsibility
to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the UNRWA, and Jordan who built the
Sheikh Jarrah housing units as residential homes in 1956 and granted the
residents ownership rights to the property.
'Undisputed ownership'

The plight of the families has become an issue that has attracted attention
across the world and been a rallying cry for Palestinians in the occupied
West Bank, besieged Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, Israel, and beyond.

In May, the possible evictions triggered protests in Palestinian towns and
cities in Israel and contributed to a flare-up in violence in Gaza, where
Israel waged a deadly bombing campaign.

Israeli forces killed at least 260 Palestinians
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-gaza-west-bank-palestinians-israelis-killed-names>,
including 66 children. Twelve people were killed in Israel by Palestinian
rockets, including two children.

'We will not go back on our decision because we have evidence from Turkey,
Jordan, and the UNRWA confirming our undisputed ownership of the property,'

*- Hashem Sallymeh, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah*

Hashem Sallymeh, also a resident of Sheikh Jarrah, told MEE that rejecting
the court's deal was the right decision.

"We are heading towards the unknown, but we strongly believe in the justice
of our cause," he said.

"We will not go back on our decision because we have evidence from Turkey,
Jordan, and the UNRWA confirming our undisputed ownership of the property.
However, the settlers resorted to malice and forgery and the Israeli courts
stood by them."

Sallymeh is not hopeful about the justice or fairness of any ruling by the
Israel Supreme Court in the future.

"How could a court sitting on stolen land [the court lies on the land of
the displaced village of Lifta] rule in fairness or even be described as a
Supreme Court? We don’t trust the Judicial System of the occupation," he
said.

Sallymeh argues that Israel will continue to pursue all means to forcibly
evict and dispossess the residents of Sheikh Jarrah in favour of
settler-colonial projects that serve its biblical narrative in Jerusalem.
Four legal options

Khaled Zabarka, a Jerusalem attorney told MEE that there are four legal
routes available before the Supreme Court within the few coming days after
the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah announced their refusal of the
deal proposed by the same court.

The first option is to schedule a new court session to hear the
defence from both parties. The second is to propose a new modified deal.
The third is to request a summary of the previous pleas.

The fourth option is the issuance of a ruling based on the legal pleas
available before the court from the appeal request folder that was lodged
by the Sheikh Jarrah families against the two eviction rulings issued by
the Magistrate and Central courts respectively.

Zabaraka maintains that the space available before the Israeli Supreme
Court is quite limited when it comes to the acceptance of the appeal lodged
by Palestinian residents and cancellation of eviction orders as it could
contradict previous rulings by other courts.

Zabaraka added that the court considerations are not purely legal. Rather,
it also has to consider how the Jews would react if it issues a ruling in
favour of the Arabs.

The court is also cautious about the consequences of turning down the
appeal and granting property ownership rights to the settlers within the
wider regional and international context.

[image: palestinians hang banner save sheikh jarrah november 2021 mee]
Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah display Save Sheikh Jarrah banners and
continue their calls for halting possible evictions, 4 November 2021
(MEE/Aseel Jundi)

As a result, the supreme judicial authority in Israel found itself in a
difficult situation. It hoped that both parties would accept the proposed
deal and it could avoid a politically controversial situation, according
to Zabaraka.

Ziyad Ibhais, a Jerusalem affairs researcher, said that Israel was hoping
that the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah would accept the court's
proposal, so that "the Sheikh Jarrah case would be removed from the central
issues in the conflict for several years to come".

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sheikh-jarrah-palestine-israel-high-court-rule-expulsion-palestinian-families>

Sheikh Jarrah: High court defers decision on expulsion of Palestinians from
their homes

The collective refusal by the Palestinians came as a surprise for Israel.
"It deprived the occupation of an opportunity to announce a total victory
in case the residents accepted the deal," says Ibhais.

Israel pre-empted the court ruling by expropriating the property of both
the Odeh and Obeidat families on the eastern side of the neighbourhood just
two days before the end of the ultimatum, as well as the issuance of
eviction orders to residents on the western side of the area only one day
after the end of the deal.

Based on this collective stance by the Palestinians, Ibhais is expecting "a
retaliatory and vindictive escalation" by Israel.

He believes it is high time to renew the popular solidarity around the
people of Sheik Jarrah.

"It is of vital importance to recognise that the Karm al-Jaouni issue - as
well as the issues of the other neighbourhoods facing the peril of
displacement - is not only a case of property to be defended by the owners
and their lawyers," says Ibhais. "But rather it is a political, existential
issue."
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