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East Jerusalem (Archives)
Photo: AFP

Israel evicts Palestinian family from Jerusalem home

Supreme Court says Al-Kurd family did not own plot of land upon which home that became symbol of opposition to Jewish settlers was built. Adviser to Palestinian PM: New Israeli crime in series of crimes that aim at Judaizing Jerusalem

Israeli police evicted a Palestinian family on Sunday from an East Jerusalem home that has become a symbol of opposition to Jewish settlers seeking a bigger foothold in the holy city.

 

The al-Kurd family had been living in the cream-colored stone house for the past 52 years. But Israel's Supreme Court ruled they did not own the plot of land upon which the home was built and in July it ordered their eviction.

 

Fawziyeh al-Kurd, 56, said police broke down the door before dawn, put her in handcuffs and dragged her and husband Mohammad out of their home, one section of which is already inhabited by a settler family under a four-year-old court decision.

 

"I will never give up my right to return to my home," she said after the eviction, carried out two days before an Israeli mayoral election in Jerusalem that Arab residents say they will boycott.

 

The family's legal fight in Jerusalem has drawn particular attention in a city where a political battle between Israel and the Palestinians over its future lies at the core of the Middle East conflict.

 

Ten years ago, a Jewish property rights group bought a disputed title to the land on which the house sits, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the eastern part of Jerusalem that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move that is not recognized internationally.

 

'Documents show house was owned by Jews'

Palestinian officials said six houses, protected by Israeli armed guards, are occupied by settlers in Sheikh Jarrah and that Arab neighbors complain of constant harassment.

 

Hatem Abdel-Qader, an adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said the eviction of the Kurd family was "A new Israeli crime in a series of crimes that aim at Judaizing Jerusalem".

 

There are now estimated to be about 200,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem, alongside about 250,000 Palestinians.

 

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital and says Jews have a right to live anywhere in the city and to reclaim property lost there in the 1948 war, when Jordan took over the West Bank.

 

Palestinians complain that Israel does not allow them to stake a claim to homes and mosques in areas it took in the conflict 60 years ago. They want Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they hope to create in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

 

Before evicting the Kurd family, Israeli police cordoned off the area around their home and declared it a closed military zone, preventing journalists from entering.

 

A police spokesman said court documents showed the house was owned by a Jewish family and the Palestinians were living there illegally. The family disputes that.

 

Husni Abu Hussein, the Kurd family's lawyer, said they were thrown out four days before Israeli legal authorities were to have responded to an appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the eviction. The family has moved in with a neighbor.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.09.08, 18:09
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