The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court has ordered on Monday that the case of a Palestinian family facing immediate eviction in the occupied East Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood be reheard, a process that will delay any possible eviction by at least two months. Earlier this year an Israeli court ordered that the 11-member Salem family be evicted from their homes between 1 March and 1 April.
Protest against evictions of Palestinian families and in solidarity with Salem family in front of the Magistrate Court in Jerusalem, the Russian Compound Monday, April 25, 2022 (Photo: Free Jerusalem)
The residence of the Salem family — three generations who were born in the home — is located on the western side of Sheikh Jarrah. Out of the 45 Palestinian families that live in the neighborhood, 17 are facing eviction orders.
The eviction of the Salem family is being sought by a racist Jerusalem city councilman who recently purchased the family’s home and is seeking to evict them. The home, in which the Salem family has been living since 1950, has been at the center of controversy in Sheikh Jarrah in recent months.
According to Wafa Palestinian news agency, the court decided to continue the freeze order after accepting an appeal by the family against the intended eviction by Israeli settler groups.
The judge also returned the file to the execution and procedure judge to hold further discussions on the case, noting flaws in the procedures presented by the settlers that must be reconsidered, according to Nasser Qous, an activist, who told Wafa that this could result in the dismissal of the whole case.
News about the Israeli court’s extension of the decision to freeze the eviction of a Palestinian family from its Sheikh Jarrah home hit the front pages of the three Arabic Palestinian dailies on Tuesday. Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Ayyam and al-Quds said that the Israeli Magistrate Court in Jerusalem decided that an earlier decision to freeze the eviction of the Palestinian Salem family from its home in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for the benefit of Israeli settlers will continue to apply.
According to Free Jerusalem activists’ group, “In our struggle alongside the Salem family and the people of Sheikh Jarrah, we stand against the occupation in East Jerusalem, against the broad scheme to expel the Palestinian communities out of the city, against a legal system in Israel that grants Jews rights that Palestinians are denied. Well over 200 families in Jerusalem are now under threat of dispossession, owing to the efforts of settler organizations backed by the court decrees and government policy.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=30184
