It Will Take the World to Save These Homes By Nora Barrows-Friedman
Orthodox Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers and police, attacked Palestinian residents of the Sa'diyya neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem Sunday evening, four days after the settler group invaded the home of the Jabir family and extra-judicially evicted them.
The settlers claim ownership of the Jabir home and several others in Sa'diyya, even after an Israeli court had decided to examine an appeal filed by Palestinian families contesting the legitimacy of the settlers' claims. Three Palestinians were injured and several were beaten and arrested by Israeli police when residents of the neighbourhood attempted to protect the Jabir home and restrain the settlers and Israeli forces.
At the same time, near Sa'diyya Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood are also facing expanding settler attacks, evictions and court battles that threaten their homes.
Maher Hanoun sits on the veranda of his modest but classic Jerusalem house. Green clematis vines crawl along the outside stone wall; children play a game of football in the alleyway across the street. Hanoun's quiet home finds itself in the direct crosshairs of what he calls the latest round of Israeli colonisation in this area. On Sunday, his family lost a final appeal in the Israeli High Court to save it. Israel has since announced that it plans to demolish the house, and those of other families in Sheikh Jarrah.
"Until now, the (Israeli) court doesn't believe that we are the owners of this home," Hanoun tells IPS. "We have documents that this home was given to us by the Jordanian government before the 1967 occupation...We are refugees. I don't want to live in a tent again."
The settlers claim ownership of the Jabir home and several others in Sa'diyya, even after an Israeli court had decided to examine an appeal filed by Palestinian families contesting the legitimacy of the settlers' claims. Three Palestinians were injured and several were beaten and arrested by Israeli police when residents of the neighbourhood attempted to protect the Jabir home and restrain the settlers and Israeli forces.
At the same time, near Sa'diyya Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood are also facing expanding settler attacks, evictions and court battles that threaten their homes.
Maher Hanoun sits on the veranda of his modest but classic Jerusalem house. Green clematis vines crawl along the outside stone wall; children play a game of football in the alleyway across the street. Hanoun's quiet home finds itself in the direct crosshairs of what he calls the latest round of Israeli colonisation in this area. On Sunday, his family lost a final appeal in the Israeli High Court to save it. Israel has since announced that it plans to demolish the house, and those of other families in Sheikh Jarrah.
"Until now, the (Israeli) court doesn't believe that we are the owners of this home," Hanoun tells IPS. "We have documents that this home was given to us by the Jordanian government before the 1967 occupation...We are refugees. I don't want to live in a tent again."
posted by temporal at 4/08/2009
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