Source: The Independent
Catrina Stewart
A 60-year-old law is being used to evict
Palestinian families and expand Jewish settlements in the coveted
suburbs of East Jerusalem
At the top of a steep and ramshackle street in the Palestinian
neighbourhood of Silwan, a rusty, battered gate opens into an
unremarkable house. Less than a quarter mile away, though, stand the Al
Aqsa mosque and the Wailing Wall, two of Jerusalem's most venerated holy
sites, making it a very attractive piece of real estate indeed.
For Mohammed Sumarin, 52, whose late uncle owned this house, this is
home. He was born here, raised here, and has never lived anywhere else.
But now he faces losing his home of more than half a century to the
Jewish National Fund (JNF), an Israeli charity that claims the house for
its own and is battling to evict the family.
Silwan, sprawled
along the southern flank of Jerusalem's Old City, is the politically
sensitive epicentre of the struggle for East Jerusalem, coveted by
Palestinians as the capital of their future state, and claimed by
Israel, which annexed the eastern sector after the 1967 Six Day War, as
an integral part of an undivided Jerusalem.
The evictions and
demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem are widely seen as
deliberately aiding Israeli settlers in staking the Jewish claim to the
eastern part of the city to thwart a final peace agreement that could
cleave the city in two.
For the past month, the Sumarins have been
living with the knowledge that they would have to leave their home by
the end of the month or face forcible eviction. "We are not living like
human beings," Mr Sumarin, a severe diabetic who is bedridden for much
of the day, says. "We cannot sleep at night. We live in fear. We expect
them to come at any moment and throw us out."
Waiting in the wings
is Himnuta, the shadowy arm of the JNF, which declares itself the owner
of the house. Himnuta, unlike the Fund, seeks to acquire property
across the Green Line. Israeli and Palestinian activists fear that if
Himnuta gets hold of the house, it will, as it has many times before,
lease the house to El'ad, an extreme religious settler group that has
established a bible-inspired archaeological park in the area and covets
this neighbourhood for the Jews.
For the moment, though, the
Sumarins can breathe a little more easily. Hours before an eviction
order expired earlier this week, an Israeli judge suspended the ruling
in response to a counter suit by the family's lawyer. It has given
Himnuta until 18 December to decide whether it intends to go ahead with
the eviction or not, amid mounting international pressure on the JNF to
back down.
Like so many Palestinians who have lost their homes in
recent years, the Sumarins are victims of an old Israeli law that allows
the state to confiscate property of absentee Palestinian owners living
in an "enemy" state following the creation of Israel in 1948.
Problematically, the law predates 1967, when Israel captured the West
Bank, and those states classified as enemy states include the occupied
West Bank, Jordan (which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994) and
almost every other Arab nation.
When the owner of this house – Mr
Sumarin's uncle – died in 1984, somebody spotted an opportunity. The
owner's sons, the legal heirs to the property, then lived in Jordan, the
United Arab Emirates and the United States, while Mr Sumarin and his
family continued to live in the property with permission of their
relatives.
The Custodian for Absentee Properties confiscated the
house a few years later with the help of the 1950s law, subsequently
transferring it to Himnuta. In 1991 began a lengthy court process that
would drag on for 15 years. The Sumarins initially fended off the action
by Himnuta, but a negligent lawyer failed to defend an action against
them in 2005, not even informing the family that a suit to evict them
had been filed. The Israeli court ruled in favour of Himnuta, and
ordered the family to pay Himnuta 1 million shekels (£170,300) in rent
and interest, which has since risen to 2 million shekels (£340,600).
Technically,
Israel is acting within the bounds of its own law, but it is, claims
Daniel Siedeman, an Israeli human rights lawyer, a transparently
"government-backed settler endeavour which is of highly questionable
legality". "A system that operates in such a way is not driven by the...
law but the calculus of a national struggle," he adds.
Since the
early 1990s, Himnuta has taken legal ownership of at least eight
Palestinian properties in Silwan, and in almost every case documented by
Israeli activists has leased them to El'ad, a registered charity funded
by wealthy donors whose identities are shielded by a web of offshore
companies. Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich attended a 2005
fundraiser for the group, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.
El'ad
has been open about its vision for the neighbourhood. In an interview
with an Israeli publication four years ago, director Doron Speilman
gestured towards Silwan and said: "Our goal is to turn this land you see
behind you into Jewish hands."
With the backing of the Israeli
government, the settler group has worked to achieve that vision through
archaeology, establishing a national park called City of David in the
upper part of Silwan. El'ad claims that archaeological finds in the area
provide proof that King David, a legendary Hebrew figure, existed and
established a city on this site in 1,000 BC.
Some Israeli
archaeologists have disputed the settlers' conclusions, arguing that
there is no evidence to prove their claims. But it does, says
independent archaeologist Yoni Mizrahi, help create a national consensus
over the historical significance of the site.
"El'ad can say:
'We're not taking over Palestinian land. We're coming back to where our
ancestors lived,'" he says. "Many Israelis are against the taking over
of [Palestinian] houses, but they support the archaeology."
But
El’ad insisted this week that the Sumarin family had no legal rights to
the property, claiming that they forged ownership documents that they
used to prove a legal right to their relatives’ house.
“The facts
are that they illegally seized a property, used forged documents to try
and deceive the courts, and are now refusing to leave a property which
they never owned in the first place,” El’ad director Doron Spielman said
in an emailed statement. “It is time to pull the cover off this charade
and understand that this is a premeditated criminal scheme to illegally
seize control of property which does not belong to them.”
Hagit
Ofran, an activist with the NGO, Peace Now, confirmed that the courts
had ruled in 2004 that a document transferring ownership to the family
was forged, but said that the Sumarins did not have the money to appeal
the decision. She added: “When the court said the document was forged,
the court did not say that the family had no rights to the home.”
The
document “was only one of the sources of their right to the property.
Himnuta’s right to the property is much more questionable,” she said.
Over
the past two decades, El'ad has expanded its presence in Silwan,
commandeering confiscated Palestinian homes and bringing in settler
families, whose 500-strong presence is heavily defended by gun-toting
security guards, who frequently clash, sometimes fatally, with
Palestinians in the area. The lawyer Mr Siedeman, says the consequences
of the settlers' actions cannot be overstated. The Sumarins' plight "is
emblematic of a conflict that is careering out of control," he says.
"The two-state solution is being endangered... and the radicalisation of
the conflict is morphing from a political one into a religious one."
Meanwhile,
the fate of the Sumarins is in limbo. Himnuta now has a choice: it can
decide not to press for the family's eviction or it can continue its
fight.
Shortly before the court halted the eviction order, Himnuta
said that it was open to dialogue with the family, but insisted that
the family would have to pay the 2 million shekel debt and an
undetermined level of rent if it wanted to remain.
Given the
family's straitened financial circumstances, activists are sceptical
that the offer was meant seriously, and fear that Himnuta will continue
to seek the eviction.
Jawad Siyam, a local activist, says the
situation in Silwan is becoming intolerable, with the rights of the dead
given precedence over those of living Palestinians. "Why do settlers
who came here 20 years ago have the right to take over? Just because
King David was here 3,000 years ago?" he says. "We can't breathe here
because of the political situation."
