Report: “Evictions and Settlement Plans in Sheikh Jarrah”

Report: “Evictions and Settlement Plans in Sheikh Jarrah”

Report: “Evictions and Settlement Plans in Sheikh Jarrah”

Ir Amim (City of Nations or City of Peoples) is an Israeli non-profit organization founded to engage in those issues impacting on Palestinian–Israeli relations in Jerusalem, and on the political future of the city. Ir Amim seeks to render Jerusalem a more viable and equitable city, while generating and promoting a more politically sustainable future. Ir Amim has recently released this report, “Evictions and Settlement Plans in Sheikh Jarrah: The Case of Shimon HaTzadik.”

“Summary

“On May 17, two Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem received court orders to vacate their homes by July 19, 2009.  At that point, the houses will be turned over to the landlord: settler organization Nahalat Shimon International, which seeks to demolish the existing Palestinian neighborhood and build a 200-unit settlement in its place. In recent months, the actual and pending evictions of several Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah have sparked international controversy. Israeli authorities claim that Palestinian residents have lost their rights as protected tenants due to delinquency in rent payments, while Palestinians maintain that Israeli ownership claims are baseless. Currently, settlers inhabit 5-6 buildings in the area, and active court cases threaten 4 Palestinian extended families.

“This memo aims to clarify the issues in Sheikh Jarrah, and to place the controversy in the context of an ongoing set of development plans that threaten to spark a dangerous escalation of the conflict in the city and to preclude an agreed-upon political resolution in Jerusalem. Complementing settler organization Nahalat Shimon International’s legal battle against Palestinian residents is that same group’s plan to demolish the existing residential structures and evict hundreds of Palestinian residents in order to clear the way for a new Israeli settlement: Shimon HaTzadik. This settlement constitutes one of a series of plans that seek to penetrate and surround Sheikh Jarrah with Israeli settlements, yeshivas and other Jewish institutions, as well as national park land, and complement government efforts to ring the Old City with Jewish development and effectively cut it off from Palestinian areas.

“The struggle for the area highlights an additional issue: the ongoing attempt of Israeli settlers, backed by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), to ‘reclaim’ plots of land in East Jerusalem that were owned by Jews under British or Ottoman rule. These efforts continue throughout East Jerusalem, despite Israeli courts’ ongoing refusal to recognize similar claims by Palestinian owners in West Jerusalem.”

Click here to read the full report.