Pushing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem, one family at a time
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 08:09PM Wednesday, 23 November 2011 13:38 Emma Mancini for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)
In five days, the Sumarin family--who live in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan--will lose their home.
A Palestinian resident of Silwan, an East Jerusalem neighborhood that faces land confiscations, home evictions, night raids by the army, and near daily arrests. East Jerusalem residents pay taxes to the municipality but receive little services in return (Photo: flickr/Melanie van der Voort)
For decades, the Sumarins have lived in Wadi Helweh, at the entrance of Silwan, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem. But one week ago, the family received an order telling them they must leave. If they don’t, they will face eviction by force.
Himnuta, a subsidiary of the Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL), justifies the transfer by saying that the family lives in the house illegally. Himnuta claims that the building belongs to them.
“In 1984, my great grandfather Musa Abdullah, the owner of the house, died,” Mahmoud Sumarin explains to the Alternative Information Center (AIC), “He had a Jerusalem blue ID. His nephew and his family have been living here since his death. How did this property became an absentee property? How can it be confiscated?”
Twenty years ago, the state declared the house abandoned and transferred it to the Development Authority. In the same period, the Development Authority made an agreement with Himnuta: the state agency would receive Palestinian land and houses in Silwan in exchange for land in Wadi Ara, that the JNF-KKL donated to the State of Israel.
Once Himnuta officially obtained the land in Silwan, they donated it to Elad settlers’ association in East Jerusalem, the same organization involved in the archaeological project of the City of David. The Sumarin family home, one of a number that are threatened, is located just few meters from the entrance of the archaeological site and already surrounded by settlers.
“The first time we went to a court was in 1991,” Sumarin says, “and then again in 1995. In both cases we received papers and orders in Hebrew. The legal battle ended in 2003: after giving to the court all the documents proving clearly that the house is our property, the tribunal ruled in our behalf. We have the right to live here.”
But ten days ago, on Sunday 14th of November, agents from the Bailiff’s office of Jerusalem served the Sumarin’s with an eviction order: the 12 members of the family have to leave their house before the 28th of November or they will face a forcible eviction. Further, they have to compensate Himnuta for decades of “unpaid rent”: two millions shekel (almost 540.000 dollars).
The members of the Sumarin family are frightened. They don’t have anywhere to go.
“On the 28th we will not leave,” one woman tells the AIC. “We will fight, hoping that our lawyer succeeds to solve this situation in the next five days. We have the solidarity of the people, next Friday they will come here for the prayer.”
Twelve people live in the two story house, including five children, a pregnant women, and an old man suffering from diabetes.
“I haven’t slept in a week,” the woman continues, “for the fear of hearing the Israeli soldiers... And for the children it is the same: they are not studying, they can’t pay attention at school”.
Mahmoud Sumarin adds that another family in Silwan has just received eviction orders, as well.
The approximately 15,000 Palestinian residents suffer frequent house demolitions and evictions, night raids by the Israeli army and near-daily arrests. A quarter of Silwan’s lands have been confiscated by Israel and given to the City of David project.
The Jerusalem municipality has additional plans for Silwan: parking, parks, and archaeological sites that celebrate the ancient Jewish presence in Jerusalem. And, already, more than 500 Jewish settlers live in Silwan.
“The idea is to create a sort of ring around the Old City,” Dawd, a member of the Health Work Committee, says to the AIC, “They are carrying out this project in different ways: house demolitions, forced evictions, revocations of the residency rights.
Dawd adds that lack of schools and public services are another way that the city of Jerusalem tries to push Palestinian residents out.
Several Palestinians who moved to Silwan when Israel started building the separation barrier are now moving back to the West Bank, Dawd says. “Those who have moved to this side of the [separation barrier] in order to maintain Jerusalem residency are going back now, because of the lack of jobs or because of the home evictions...”
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HUMAN RIGHTS
Family of 12 faces eviction in East Jerusalem
http://electronicintifada.net/content/family-12-faces-eviction-east-jerusalem/10618#.Ts6mcmCIpGE
Nadia Walid Somrein The Electronic Intifada Silwan 23 November 2011
The Somrein family outside their home, slated for eviction. (Nadia Walid Somrein / The Electronic Intifada )
In the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, another house is about to bite the dust. The odds are certainly stacked against the Somrein family, which has received eviction orders and a series of bills amounting to more than two million shekels (over $500,000) worth of “back rent.” Back rent for what? For living in the family house, on family land, in Silwan.
The house and land in question is located in Wadi Hilweh, Silwan, just two hundred yards from al-Aqsa Mosque on the southern side of the Old City walls. The property belonged to Musa Abdullah Somrein, a Jerusalem ID holder. Hajj Musa, as he was known, passed away in 1983 and was buried in Jerusalem, while his burial certificate was issued by the Israeli Ministry of Interior.
Today, Hajj Musa’s nephew, Mohammed Somrein, lives there with 11 other members of the Somrein family. Mohammed has lived in this house, with his uncle while he was alive, since he was five years old. The years since have not been kind to Mohammed. He is diabetic and requires dialysis treatment on a regular basis. He is also unemployed. And now, he has been hit with an eviction order and a huge fine he cannot possibly pay.
“Absentee property”
Somehow, despite Mohammed’s 48 years of residence in this house, and despite the fact there are legal documents clearly stating that the land is owned by the Somrein family, the land has been declared absentee property and thus subject to confiscation. The property has been defined as such because Hajj Musa’s direct descendants — his children and grandchildren — live in the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Mohammed’s status as Hajj Musa’s nephew has been completely overlooked, and his lifetime residence on the property, with the consent of the children of Hajj Musa, disregarded.
Though this could never happen in any normal country, under Israeli rule, all absurd things seem possible for Palestinians. After Hajj Musa’s death, the land was transferred to the Custodian of Absentee Property. He went on to transfer custody of the land to the Israel Development Authority, which transferred the land to the Jewish National Fund (JNF).
The JNF, in turn, transferred the property to a subsidiary company called Himnuta. While this bizarre series of events was unfolding, Mohammed and his family continued to live in the house, unaware that they were about to receive a very distressing shock (“Palestinian family given two weeks to vacate East Jerusalem home,” Haaretz, 15 November 2011).
In 1991, Himnuta lodged a complaint against the Somrein family in Israeli courts, demanding their eviction. They also started “billing” Mohammed for living on the property. Mohammed fought the order, arguing that Hajj Musa was a Jerusalem resident, who died in Jerusalem, was never “absent” from his property, and that his family continue to reside there.
Himnuta, according to the Somrein family lawyer, is just another of the many faces of Elad, an extreme right-wing Jewish settler organization. Also known as the Ir David Foundation, Elad has the backing of the Israeli prime minister’s office, the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (which Elad helps finance). Elad’s aim was best expressed in a 2007 interview with then Elad development director Doron Speilman. During the interview, he gestured toward Silwan and said: “Our goal is to turn all this land you see behind you into Jewish hands” (Tim McGirk, “Archaeology in Jerusalem: Digging Up Trouble,” Time Magazine, 8 February 2010).
Indeed, most of the 30 dunums (about 7.4 acres) included in the land swap were apparently leased to settlers without tender (“Palestinian family at immediate risk of eviction in Silwan,” Settlement Watch East Jerusalem, 16 November 2011).
The question remains, how will Mohammed Somrein and his family fight a well-financed and invidious organization such as Elad in an Israeli court already biased in Elad’s favor? For that matter, how do the many other families in Silwan succeed in regaining the land and homes that have been snatched by Elad? How do others protect themselves from similar fates?
Since the Wadi Hilweh Information Center came into being in 2009, it has reported that 15 eviction notices have been issued to families in Silwan alone. Meanwhile, according to a study by the Jerusalem-based human rights organization Al-Maqdese for Society Development, Silwan has had 36 buildings housing 245 people demolished by Israeli authorities between 2000 and 2010 (“House demolitions in Silwan,” Al-Maqdese for Society Development, July 2010 [PDF]). Furthermore, plans announced by the Jerusalem municipality in 2009 to demolish 88 homes in the Bustan area of Silwan have not been cancelled (“An update on Bustan,” Wadi Hilweh Information Center, 25 May 2011) .
And just last week, the Committee for the Defense of Silwan issued a statement announcing that the Jerusalem municipality seized a piece of land belonging to a Palestinian Orthodox monastery in the neighborhood of al-Thawri in west Silwan. According to the statement, these 850 square meters of land are to be turned into a Talmudic garden (for students of Jewish law and ethics) and a parking lot (“Israeli municipality seizes land in Silwan,” Wafa, 16 November 2011).
Of immediate concern, however, are the twelve Somreins who are to be evicted next week, unless a court order declares that the case has not yet reached its conclusion. If the family is evicted, they will have nowhere else to go.
Nadia Somrein lives and works in East Jerusalem and is a relation of the family about to be evicted.
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