Sheikh Jarrah: Palestinians offered way out from evictions

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-58024060

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The threatened evictions became a flashpoint for violence earlier this year

Israel's top court has proposed a plan to enable Palestinians threatened with eviction in East Jerusalem to stay, in a closely-watched and divisive case.

The Supreme Court was expected to issue a ruling to end a long legal battle but urged the sides to compromise instead.

It proposed the four families could stay in their homes in Sheikh Jarrah if they recognised the land was owned by a Jewish settlement company.

The issue has fuelled Israel-Palestinian tensions in recent months.

The threat of evictions stoked some of the worst violence between Israeli police and Palestinians in Jerusalem in years, culminating in an 11-day conflict with Gaza after its militant Hamas rulers fired rockets at the city in what it said was partly a response to Israeli "harassment" in Sheikh Jarrah.

Under the court's plan, the Palestinians - among dozens of families threatened with eviction - would remain as "protected tenants" who cannot be evicted for the foreseeable future so long as they pay rent to the Jewish organisation which owns the land - a status quo which existed up until the 1980s.

The court gave the Palestinians seven days to present a list of qualifying residents, effectively deferring a final decision until at least then.

The case has become the focus of international attention and a rallying point for campaigners opposed to Israeli settlement activity. The United Nations' human rights chief has called on Israel not to carry out any evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, with her office warning such a move might constitute a war crime under international law.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and in effect annexed it later on. It does not regard the East as occupied territory but rather views the whole of the city as its capital - a claim not recognised by most of the international community.

Israel says the issue of Sheikh Jarrah is not a matter for the state but a private property dispute subject to the decisions of the courts.

Sheikh Jarrah: The land dispute in the eye of a storm

Why are Palestinians losing their homes in East Jerusalem?

Monday's hearing is the culmination of nearly 30 years of legal proceedings, which began when the land's registered Jewish owners sought to evict the Palestinian residents for non-payment of rent.

The Palestinians claimed they were the rightful owners of the property, which they said had been guaranteed them by Jordan when it settled the families there after it occupied the area in the Arab-Israel war of 1948.

The Palestinians' claim was rejected by a Jerusalem court in 2020 and the eviction order upheld.

Palestinians see the case as part of a wider move by Israeli settlers to take over Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of a hoped-for independent state.

In 2003, rights to land where they live in Sheikh Jarrah were bought by a Jewish organisation which plans to develop the area for Jewish settlement.