Ahlul Bayt News Agency - ABNA - A file photo shows a Palestinian woman looking on as Israeli settlers step out from her occupied house in the East al-Quds neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Dozens of Palestinian families face evacuation after an Israeli court gave settlers the green light to push ahead with plans to build in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
The Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Palestinians claiming to own a large plot in the western portion of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where Israeli settlers have forcefully taken over several Palestinian homes.
The court ruled that the custodian general, and other owners, including settler representatives, succeeded in proving they owned the property.
This would mean the eviction of dozens of Palestinian families living on the property.
Aryeh King, one of the leaders of the settlement movement in East al-Quds said on Monday that three Palestinian families would be evicted from their homes and replaced by Israeli settlers in two days. He also said plans were underway to build dozens of settlement units for Jews in the neighborhood.
Palestinians filed a lawsuit in 1997, arguing that the property on which Jews settled following the Six-Day War of 1967 had not been sold to them but leased and that the ownership remained Palestinian. In 2006, the al-Quds District Court rejected the suit and they appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court rejected their appeal on Sunday and ruled that the Palestinians failed to prove the terms of the lease between the original owners and the Jews who lived in the neighborhood. It also rejected evidence that payments had been made for the lease proved the Jews had not bought the property.
The ruling is significant as the status of the Palestinians living in the eastern portion of the neighborhood is now the same as that of those living in the western side.
Sources familiar with the issue say that now it will be easier for settler groups to evict Palestinians from their homes in the area.
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