A few weeks ago (16 July), the Al Kurd family in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah received an order from the Israeli Supreme Court that they would be evicted from their house. The family believes that they are about to be evicted at any moment. The house is home to a disabled man, his wife and five children and their families. The Al Kurd family are 1948 refugees who have been living there since the early 1950s when they were given the house by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

 

The situation of the Al Kurd family is especially difficult, since they for the last seven years, have been "sharing" the house with a family of Israeli settlers. The mother of the family, Fawzieh, explained through an interpreter that in 1999 they fixed an additional wall division in the house to make a home for their sons. In 2001, while the mother was at the hospital with her husband who had suffered from a stroke, a group of Israeli settlers broke into the sons' part of the house and moved in there. Since then, they have been living in the same house, with only a thin wall between them, and sharing the same porch.

 

Already after the war in 1967, two Israeli settler organisations started claiming ownership of land in the Sheikh Jarrah area, and in the early 1980s the organisations also claimed ownership of the property of some families in the area. The legal procedures since then have been many and intricate. In 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered to evict the settlers now living in the Al Kurd family's house, but the decision has never been implemented.

 

Fawzieh is a distinguished looking woman who has a nightmarish 'neighbours from hell' type of story to tell. The court battle has already cost the al Kurds 120,000 shekels ($34,000). The Israeli settlers offered her a huge sum of money to leave the house but she refused. Six armed settlers once came to frighten her when she was alone in the house. They planted a gun nearby in the hope that they could accuse the sons of possession of arms and have them put in prison. Another time, they came with three busloads of settler children and partied outside the house leaving her to clean up the resultant mess.

 

The eviction of the Al Kurds would be a tragedy for the family. The people in the neighbourhood also fear that if the Al Kurds are evicted, this would set a precedent to justify more Israeli settlements in the Sheikh Jarrah area, which would endanger the future of another 27 families. In February this year, a settlement investment company submitted a proposal to the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, planning to demolish the 28 homes in the Sheikh Jarrah area and build new houses intented for Jewish immigrants.

 

For information from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood committee, please visit www.sheikhjarrah.com