Tag: Eviction

Sheikh Jarrah: another day sleeping under the sky

Alternative Information Center

6 August 2009

The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, housing about 500 Palestinians in East Jerusalem is under siege. Armed forces have been stationed here since early Sunday morning when the Hannoun and Gawi families were forcibly evicted from their homes by as many as 500 police officers. Now it’s a waiting game. The families are sleeping on the sidewalk in front of their homes until they’re taken away by force. This isn’t the first time they’ve been made to leave their homes. They are Haifa refugees from the 1948 Nakba, what Israel calls the War of Independence. The UNRWA made an agreement with the Jordanian government (who controlled East Jerusalem at the time) to provide them with houses in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in 1956, where the families have been living ever since.

Since the two evictions on Sunday, 2 August, 23 people have been arrested, including members of the Gawi family. Two children from the Hannoun family were walking around with their arms in slings from being roughed up by the cops when they were dragged out of their homes. About 250 supporters, including members of Rabbis for Human Rights, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Hadash, Anarchists Against the Wall, and the International Solidarity Movement demonstrated outside the Hannoun family home on Sunday evening before more than 20 police officers violently arrested 13 protesters, most locals (both Israelis and Palestinians). All were released within 24 hours on condition they do not return to Sheikh Jarrah, for at least three weeks including those who live there.

Excessive Use of Force

A young man, not older than 20 suffered a leg injury during the eviction on Sunday. According to locals, he was imprisoned for six hours before he was allowed to seek medical treatment. The combination of tear gas and the pain from his injured leg has weakened him so much, that he was not even able to talk to us.

Charihen, 20, from the Hannoun family was hit by police with a rifle, leaving her arm in a sling. She is studying Psychology at Abu Dis University. On the day of the eviction, she was supposed to write an exam, which she missed. The only thing she was able to take with her when she was forced out of her home was a textbook she needs to study for her summer course.

Charihen says she yelled at the armed forces, asking why the Israeli settlers are allowed to live in their house. A policeman replied, “They are Jews, you are Arabs… So they can stay!”

Her mother wasn’t even allowed to put on decent clothes and was thrown out on the street in her pajamas.

Monday morning residents woke up to tear gas outside their windows. The police blocked the entrance to the dead end street where the Gawis’ old home remains. Locals couldn’t leave for work or school for at least two hours Monday morning. When some people tried to protest against the road closure, the police responded with tear gas and arrested three Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah. At least one was badly injured. Some more locals went to the hospital from the affects of the chemicals in the air, including six women. Hasib Nashashibi, a member of the Coalition for Jerusalem, mentioned that “red gas” had been used, which is, according to him, known to be especially aggressive. After asking another member of the Coalition for Jerusalem how they could use tear gas against civilians, she countered: “We are not civilians, we are Palestinians… They think of us as terrorists… Therefore the way they threaten us is barbarian!”

Court Hearings after Eviction

Saleem Hannoun left the makeshift camp outside his former house on Monday to attend a court hearing. The eviction order was addressed to his brother Maher Hannoun. He never got an eviction order, nor did his second brother whose home is on the other side of Maher’s. Yet the police broke the windows and dragged out the members of all three households on Sunday. Nine families in total between the Hannouns and Gawis were forcibly removed from their homes in this manner without ever receiving eviction orders in their names. The court judge ordered Saleem to bring his bills to another hearing on Wednesday. However, settlers are already inside his home. All his belongings have been thrown out of the house. Earlier in the day, Saleem was sifting through a dumpster for his shoes. He says the police dragged him straight from his bed without allowing him time to put on shoes.

“The Israeli government doesn’t think about us, all they think about are the settlers!” the member of the Coalition for Jerusalem claims. She mentions further that immediately after the evictions, settlers moved into the houses. The Gawi family watched as a female settler went back and forth from their house to the Hannoun house for one hour, trying to decide which she wanted.

Incident with Settlers

Around 9 pm on Monday, ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlers attacked a handful of Palestinians sitting on the street. They threw stones and spat at them. About 100 settlers were shouting and swearing at the emerging crowd of local Arabs. One of the aggressors spat into the face of a boy who was no older than five years of age. Police arrived quickly and silenced the situation peacefully. Although the settlers had started the quarrel, only two police officers confronted them. The other 25 armed security forces and several cars separated the upset Palestinian community.

Jerusalem, the Island

The recent evictions are part of a plan to surround the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah with Jewish settlements, in order to separate the approximately 500 Arabs from the rest of the city and take control of the major roads in the area, says Nashashibi. This is an act of “separation, holding the land for false reasons.” In the end, there will be a long settlement straight through Jerusalem from road No.1 to Ma‘ale Adumim, the biggest settlement in the West Bank. This will separate Jerusalem from the West Bank. He believes they’re creating another island. “Hebron is an island, Nablus is an island, Gaza is an island, they are all surrounded by settlements.”

International Response

Although the United Nations special coordinator for Mideast peace, Robert Serry visited Sheikh Jarrah on Monday afternoon, Jerusalemites are still frustrated with the international community. They aren’t doing anything against the ongoing crimes against international law Israel is committing. So says a member of the Coalition in referring to the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory

“They should put political pressure on Israel about exactly these two cases!” and further “The international community must start seeing Israel as a state over law! Because what they are doing here is against international law, and they are breaking all the international conventions.”

In an official statement, Serry says, “I deplore today’s totally unacceptable actions by Israel” and further “These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace,” calling on Israel to adhere to international law and its Road Map obligations. Finally Israel must “cease and reverse such provocative and unacceptable actions in East Jerusalem.”

Similar statements came from the EU. “”The Presidency of the European Union reiterates its serious concern about the continued and unacceptable evictions in East Jerusalem, notably the evictions by Israeli authorities of two families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood,” in addition, the Presidency “recalls that house demolitions, evictions and settlement activities in East Jerusalem are illegal under international law.” The statement also noted that they “contravene repeated calls by the international community, including the Quartet, to refrain from any provocative actions in East Jerusalem.”

After 24 hours of silence about the recent incidents, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared: “I have said before that the eviction of families and demolition of homes in East Jerusalem is not in keeping with Israeli obligations, and I urge the Government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions.” Adding, “Both sides have responsibilities to refrain from provocative actions that can block the path toward a comprehensive peace agreement. Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot be used to prejudge the outcome of negotiations, and they will not be recognized as changing the status quo,”

Passing by the entrance on Tuesday, 4 August, at 8 PM, the road to the Gawi’s home was again blocked by police. We were stopped from going through, although a man with long payis (sidelocks), wearing a long black robe and a black top hat was allowed through at the same time. Wednesday, 5 August, the road remained closed and al-Jazeera news network reporters were told they cannot enter without permits.

Background

According to Hatem Abo Ahmad, the lawyer representing the Hannoun and Gawi families, when the Jordanian government built the houses for Palestinian refugees in Sheikh Jarrah the administration was supposed to transfer the property rights to the families within three years. This never happened. Instead, the Oriental Jews Association and the Knesseth Yisrael Association used Ottoman period documents to claim ownership of the land in Sheikh Jarrah in 1982.

Ahmad says he holds a letter from the Turkish government proving that there was no original document to the one presented by the settler organizations, which supposedly dates back to sometime around 1870. This evidence was presented to the court in March of this year, about a month after the court ordered the Hannoun and Gawi families must leave their houses by March 15, or they would be evicted. The court ruled the documents presented had come two years too late. The appeal had to be made within 25 years of the original claim to land put forward by the settlers. The Hannouns and Gawis were served papers on 30 July, saying they had 10 days to voluntarily leave their homes or they would be taken out by force. They have been living there since 1956.

Israeli police deliver East Jerusalem demolition orders

Ma’an News

5 August 2009

Eight Palestinians were injured when they were assaulted by Israeli forces who delivered demolition orders in the Al-Bustan neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Jerusalem Police used tear gas to disperse residents who confronted the Israeli officers serving five demolition orders in the densely populated neighborhood, where there are already 90 standing demolition orders.

Israeli police also seized the ID card of Musa Odeh, a member of the Al-Bustan Committee, a popular organization dedicated to peacefully opposing the demolitions.

Al-Bustan is part of the Silwan area, in a valley next to Jerusalem’s Old City. The Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipal government says it intends to level the neighborhood and build a park.

Israeli authorities contend the Palestinian houses were built without construction permits, which are rarely issued to Palestinians. Some of the structures, however, were built before Israel occupied and annexed East Jerusalem in 1967.

The international community does not recognize Israeli control over East Jerusalem, which is part of the West Bank.

Evicted Palestinians stand their ground – on thin mattresses

Ilene R. Prusher | Christian Science Monitor

4 August 2009

It was 13-year-old Diala who was awoken first, just after 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, by the commotion outside. She rushed to the window, saw special riot police in black uniforms, and ran to wake her parents.

By the time she did, the Israeli police were already breaking in through doors and windows, forcing the 17-member Hanoun family – three brothers, their wives, and children – to leave the home their relatives acquired a half-century ago. In all, 58 Palestinians were evicted in this predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah.

Though they had received – and refused to obey – a court order in May to leave after losing a longstanding dispute over property rights, it was still a shock.

“I had one shoe on and one off, and the policeman who was ordering me out tried to move aside the glass they broke to make sure that I didn’t cut my feet,” says Diala’s mother, Nadia Hanoun. A few hours later, they stood across the street and watched as the police escorted a few families of Jewish settlers into their homes.

“He was concerned about my feet bleeding, but he doesn’t see the bleeding in my heart. It’s so difficult for us to see them move in people who are not from here, into our house, into the home my husband was born in, while we’re on the street,” says Mrs. Hanoun, sitting in the shade of a tree about 50 feet from their front door, now blocked off by a line of security barriers and several police vans with flashing lights. The family has for two nights slept on the thin mattresses piled behind her; she says they have no other place to go.

The events in Sheikh Jarrah garnered international censure from the European Union, the United Nations (UN) and from Britain, which said it was “appalled” at the move. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday night called the Israeli evictions “deeply regrettable” and “provocative.” Such a move “is not in keeping with Israeli obligations and I urge the government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions,” she said.

Who is responsible?

Neither the Jerusalem municipality nor any government office is taking responsibility for the incident, pointing instead to the courts. There, a decades-long battle over the houses has ensued, in which a group of Jewish families say they can show that their forbearers owned the houses here as far back as the late 19th century, when the area was administered by the Ottoman Empire. The Jewish families say they were forced to abandon the houses during a spate of Arab attacks in the area in the 1920s and 30s. In the war for Israel’s establishment in 1948, the territory became part of Jordan.

In 1956, 28 Palestinian families who were refugees from Israel after 1948 were resettled in Sheikh Jarrah as part of an UN project to assist people made homeless in the war. The Hanoun family, who say they are originally from Haifa, was one of the recipients – and Maher Hanoun, Nadia’s husband, was born in the house.

The story gets more tangled from there. Both the Israelis and Palestinians involved in the dispute say that they have Ottoman-era property ownership documents called tabu which proves that they are the rightful owners. Palestinians say that the Hijazi family – who now live elsewhere in Jerusalem – can show they own the land. But the Jewish families, represented legally by a real estate group called Nahalat Shimon International also have Turkish tabu papers they say prove the land is theirs.

According to a briefing (PDF) by Israeli advocacy group Ir Amim, an Israeli group that opposed the evictions and advocates a Jerusalem “equitably shared by the two peoples,” Nahalat Shimon is seeking to build a 200-unit settlement, Shimon HaTzadik, in the area. It’s unclear who is behind the real-estate company, which is sometimes characterized as a settler group.

“We don’t focus on the specific settlers’ groups because in our view the one who is really responsible in these cases is the Israeli government and the municipality,” says Orly Noy, a spokesperson for Ir Amim,

After an Israeli court ruled in the Jewish families’ favor, the Palestinian families were given a court order to leave by July 19. The families refused. “We know their documents are forgeries,” says Rami Hanoun, whose arm is in a sling after being injured by police when he was evicted from the house.

Arabs see ethnic-cleansing of Jerusalem

Hosni Abu Hussein, a lawyer for the two extended Palestinian families – which include eight nuclear families – says that six of the eight nuclear families who were evicted were thrown out illegally, when police overstepped their orders. But two of the eight families, including Maher, Nadia, and three children, don’t have a strong case for getting reinstated.

“This eviction was done in an illegal matter and without due process,” says Abu Hussein. “The duty of the authorities as they see it is to cleanse Jerusalem of Arabs.”

Though that’s a harsh accusation, it is a sentiment that is felt throughout East Jerusalem, where many Palestinian residents are facing either eviction or demolition orders. Just two weeks ago, Israeli officials approved the construction of settler apartments in another part of Sheikh Jarrah on the grounds of the old Shepherd Hotel. Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat defended the move, saying it was inconceivable that Jews not be allowed to live anywhere they chose in the city Israel has declared as its undivided and eternal capital.

Two different spokesman – one for the Justice Ministry and one for the Jerusalem mayor’s office – said they could not comment on the case because it was solely in the hands of the court.

A plethora of international organizations have expressed dismay over the evictions, which came amid attempts to revive the peace process. The Obama administration in particular has asked Israel to freeze settlement growth in the West Bank and not to authorize projects that aim to settle Israelis in the heart of Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, thereby changing the “status quo” and frustrating hopes for a two-state solution that would include a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem.

Some Israelis vehemently disagree with their government’s policy in Sheikh Jarrah. Two of them are professors Yaron Ezrahi and Ruth HaCoheh, a couple who came down the hill from a conference at nearby Hebrew University to visit with the Palestinians families and sit with other visitors empathetic to their plight.

“It’s going on under our noses, so how can we not come? We find it outrageous,” says Prof. Ezrahi, a political scientist who has been a frequent critic of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians. “These kinds of actions destroy the moral fabric of our society.”

US condemns evicition of east J’lem families

Efrat Weiss | YNet News

3 August 2009

Some 200 leftists, including Arabs and Jews, protested the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Clashes broke out between the demonstrators and security forces, and 13 people were arrested.

Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families, then allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes, drawing criticism from Palestinians, the United Nations and the State Department.

Police arrived before dawn and cordoned off part of the Arab neighborhood before forcibly removing more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees.

UN staff later saw vehicles bringing Jewish settlers to move into the homes, he said.

Israeli police cited a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.

Gunness said the families had lived in the homes for more than 50 years.

US State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said in response to the eviction that such actions in east Jerusalem constitute violations of Israel’s obligations under US-backed “Road Map” peace plan.

“Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community,” she said in a statement.

Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, called the evictions “totally unacceptable.”

“These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace,” he said in a statement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also condemned the move.

“While Israeli authorities have promised the American administration that home demolitions, home evictions and other provocations against Palestinian Jerusalemites would be stopped, what we’ve seen on the ground is completely the opposite,” he said in a statement.

Khawla Hanoun, 35, who lived in one of the homes, said police ordered her and 16 family members to leave the house before dawn and forced them out at gunpoint when they refused.

“Now our future is in the streets,” she said. “We will remain steadfast until we return home. By any method, we must go back home.”

Israel evicts Palestinian families

Al Jazeera

2 August 2009

Israeli security forces have forcibily evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after a court rejected an appeal against their eviction.

The al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families who were evicted on Sunday have been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since 1956.

Israel has reportedly set aside the land their houses were built on for a planned hotel project.

The eviction comes amid international calls for Israel to halt settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.

A large police force was involved in the operation in Sheikh Jarrah, one of the most sensitive and upmarket Arab neighbourhoods closest to the so-called Green Line which separates east and west Jerusalem.

Violent ‘scuffles’

Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in East Jerusalem, said: “According to the Hanoun family, the members that I have spoken to, at about 6am as they were sleeping inside the house, Israeli police officers broke in and we can see the shattered glass all over the floor outside.

“They say that the police were armed and they forcibly evicted both the international activists that were staying at the house and members of the family themselves.

“Members of the family say the police officers beat them with batons and children as young as six were man-handled … scuffles were seen and heard between the police and the two families trying to get back into their houses,” she said.

Tadros said the international activists were arrested and personal items belonging to the families such as cameras, laptops and computers have all been confiscated.

‘Blatant violation of law’

Residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, composed of 28 Palestinian families, held a press conference on May 6 in order to raise awareness regarding the Israeli District Court decision to issue an ultimatum to the al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families giving them 10 days to evacuate their homes or face punitive measures, including forcible expulsion.

Maher Hanoun, one of 53 family members of the two families affected by the court decision said in a statement: “The al Ghawi and al Hanoun cases are part of an ongoing attempt by the two Jewish settler organisations to take over 28 housing units built in 1956 to house refugees and to turn it into a Jewish colony.

“Israel’s measures against the two families constitute blatant violations of international law including the 4th Geneva Convention that obligates the occupying authorities, Israel, to maintain the geographic and demographic characteristics of occupied East Jerusalem,” he said.

Hanoun appealed to the “international community, human rights organisations, and the EU to exert pressure on Israel to stop it from pursuing its plan to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem of its Palestinian population”.

In 1982, Israeli settler organisations began demanding rent from the Palestinian families of Sheikh Jarrah, who at that point had been living in the neighbourhood for almost 30 years – and when many of the families refused to pay this rent, the first eviction orders were issued.

The legal proceedings continued over the years, and in 2006 it was ruled by court that the settler organisations did not have rights to the land, and the Israeli land registration department agreed to revoke the settler associations’ ownership.

Settlement expansion

Despite pending appeals and the lack of legal ownership of land in the neighbourhood, the settler organisations sold their property claim in 2008 to an investment company that plans to demolish the 28 Palestinian homes and build 200 settlement units for new Jewish immigrants.

Settlements have emerged as a sticking point in relations between Israel and US [File: EPA]
Further reports state that two additional construction plans being currently reviewed by the Jerusalem municipality would create an additional 150 housing units, for a total of 350 new housing units for Israelis, as well as a synagogue in Sheikh Jarrah.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said: “If the Israeli prime minister continues with settlement activities, he will undermine the efforts to revive the peace process.”

Although Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, recently yielded to US pressure to conditionally endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has consistently resisted US demands for a total freeze on settlement expansion.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and declared the whole city its capital after the 1967 Six Day War, a move not recognised by the international community.