East Jerusalem: Settlers Take Over Another House
Reageer (0)14-8-2010
On the 29th of July another house in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City was taken over by settlers. Whilst the court makes its final decision, 8 of the 9 Palestinian families who were resident in the building for some 70 years were forced to find temporary accommodation elsewhere.Nicky Elliott visited the families.
All but one of the nine Qresh families living in the large building in the Sa’adiye neighborhood near Herod’s gate had been attending a wedding when over 30 young settlers arrived to seize the house. At the time of arrival, the settler group was accompanied by police who prevented the families from re-entering their home. Mickey Rosenfield, the Israeli National Police spokesman, told Ma’an News that the settlers had presented “documents claiming that they owned the property”.
On the 30th of July however there was a court order stating that the settlers must leave the house: the settlers appealed the order. Following the appeal the court gave both sides three days each to present their cases.
During the 6 day period of appeal the situation was frozen, meaning that one Palestinian Family and 30 of the settlers were allowed to remain in the building. Entrance to the building was being managed by a private security company, which works with most settlements in the East Jerusalem area. The security is financed by the Israeli ministry of Housing.
Courtesy: Hagit Efran
According to a Sheik Jarrah activist who has been monitoring the situation the lack of impartiality on the part of the Security company has been causing problems throughout the week.
Initially the Palestinian residents remained outside the house in protest, awaiting the court’s decision. But with the beginning of holiday season most have found temporary accommodation with families.
The decision being made in court does not relate to Ownership rights but to tenants rights. The building has been home to 49 members of the Qresh Family since 1936 and was in the ownership of Kamal Handal, an American Palestinian who now resides in the United States. According to the settlers however, the house was sold to Ateret Kohanim, the Settler organization behind the takeover, in 1987.
According to Hagit Efran of Settlement Watch the residents claim that they have been consistently paying rent to the settlers since the building was bought and that they have protected tenants’ rights, preventing their unwarranted eviction. They have been pursuing their case before the Israeli courts over the years: in both 2000 and 2008 they successfully challenged eviction orders.
"If they bought the house, that’s fine. Congratulations. But I have rights here. They can make me pay them rent but they cannot force me out," AFP has quoted resident Majid Qarsh as saying.
Ma’an news reported that ”The UN special envoy to the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, has also condemned the incident, which he said was an act of provocation “at a critical time in the international community’s efforts to move the peace process forward.”
Aerial view of herod’s gate. Settlers have occupied 3 buildings within the old city’s walls here
Courtesy Hagit Efran - http://settlementwatcheastjerusalem.files.wordpress.com/
This is the 3rd house near Herod’s gate in the old city to have been occupied by settlers over the last few years. Since the 80’s settlers have taken over some 50 houses in the Christian and Muslim Quarters of the old city.
Such settlement is often carried out through organizations that help settlers to ‘return’ to East Jerusalem. The ‘charitable organization responsible for the recent take-over, Ateret Cohanim, supports settler groups across east Jerusalem and is responsible for the “Beit Yonatan” structure and the “Honey House” in the Baten el-Hawa neighborhood.
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