At the last minute on Thursday night, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) announced a delay in the eviction of 12 members of a Palestinian family from the house where they’ve been living in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. An eviction order had initially been issued requiring the Sumarin family to be out of the property tomorrow (Monday).
The JNF attempted to downplay its connection to the site, referring inquiries to extreme-right Elad association, a group that has been bringing Jewish settlers to live in occupied East Jerusalem and obtaining leases for much of the property Himnuta acquired in Silwan.
A demonstration, last Friday, against the eviction in Silwan (Photo: Activestills)
Last week Rabbis for Human Rights and the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement launched a campaign against the JNF. Following the campaign, the JNF announced that it was not a party to the eviction case, claiming that Elad had pursued the action without any connection to the Jewish National Fund. However, the legal documents in the eviction action show that Himnuta, a wholly-owned JNF subsidiary, was the party that brought the current legal action.
The eviction action has been going on for 20 years, before four different courts, and in each case Himnuta was the plaintiff in the matter; Elad was never a legal party to the action. Himnuta is also pursuing two other eviction cases in the Palestinian neighborhood. It should be noted, however, that the lawyers representing Himnuta represented Elad in other eviction actions in Silwan.
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