ISRAELI COURT RULES AGAINST LAND CONFISCATION IN SILWAN
Jerusalem, 2 Jumadil Akhir 1436/22 March 2015 (MINA) – The central Israeli court in Jerusalem has rejected a bid by the Jerusalem municipality to confiscate a private Palestinian property in Wadi Qaddum in Silwan south of the Old City.
The one dunam (0.25 acre) property is owned by Fatima al-Abbasi from Silwan and a building under construction currently stands there.
Although the property in question is small, the court’s decision comes amid a wave of home takeovers by Jewish settlers that aim to kick out Palestinian locals, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
The takeovers have often occurred with Israeli officials’ consent, and have led to repeated clashes in the already tense neighborhood.
A member of the Palestinian family that won the case Wednesday, Muhammad Amin al-Abbasi, told Ma’an on Friday that the Jerusalem District Court had rejected the municipality’s claim that the land was public property.
The judge ordered the case closed and denied the Jerusalem municipality access to the property.
He based his decision on the fact that the municipality had itself approved in Sept. 2014 an application by local residents allowing them to build houses across an area of 25 dunams (six acres) in Wadi Qaddum, including the land belonging to Fatima al-Abbasi.
According to local residents, the Jerusalem municipality claims that they planned to build a school on the land to serve the local Palestinian population, although in 2013 municipality inspectors posted a note on the site saying that it had been earmarked for a public park.
Silwan has been a repeated site of Israeli settler incursions and attempts to evict Palestinian locals. On Wednesday, settlers invaded a building and took over three apartments, after taking over dozens of apartments last fall.
Settlers have made use of Israeli courts repeatedly to try to push out locals.
The settler group first tried to take over the property in the neighborhood, which it calls the “City of David,” in 2007.
East Jerusalem was seized by Israel along with the West Bank in 1967 during the Six-Day War, and since then, the Israeli authorities have undertaken a policy of “Judaization” across the city, constructing Jewish settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes.
There are now believed to be more than 300,000 Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem.
The international community views East Jerusalem as part of the Palestinian territories and recognizes the annexation and settlement programs as illegal under international law. (T/P010/P3)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
