Occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah The Salem family is living in terror and trepidation as they prepare to be evicted from their home, which they have owned since 1951 and is now home to three generations.
An Israeli court ordered last year that the family of 11, including four children, living in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, must be forcefully evacuated by December 29, 2021, after Israeli settler NGOs filed a claim to the property.
Following demonstrations and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, an Israeli court temporarily stopped the forced evacuation on December 23 after a police plea.
However, it is now scheduled on an unannounced day later this month, despite the family’s inability to submit any further appeals.
On December 9, a right-wing Israeli activist and Jerusalem municipal council member Yonatan Yosef handed the eviction notice to the family’s grandmother, 74-year-old Fatima Salem.
He and Arieh King, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, claimed to have purchased the home from Jewish owners who had owned it before 1948.
When Israel was formed in 1948, 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly evacuated from their homes and land, and the Salem family became refugees.
The Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property, which had been formed to manage property stolen from Jews in Jordanian-controlled territories during the 1948 Arab–Israeli conflict, leased the house to the family in 1951 under a protected tenancy arrangement. During the 1967 conflict, Israel took control of East Jerusalem.
“This is where my folks have resided since 1951.” I was born, married, and gave birth to all of my children in this town. “All three of my sons, their spouses, and their children now reside here,” Fatima says.
“We don’t have anywhere else to go, and we can’t afford to rent something new.” In the chilly and rainy winter weather, we could wind up on the street.
“The pressure is too much to handle.” We all have trouble sleeping at night, which exacerbates my health difficulties.”
The veracity of paperwork presented by the Israelis to claim ownership of the Salem family house has also been questioned by Palestinian locals.
Meanwhile, while Israel has rules that allow Jewish settlers to take over land and property in East Jerusalem that they say they resided on before to the 1948 conflict, the same laws do not apply to Palestinians who were forcibly evicted from their homes to form Israel.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 970 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, including 424 children, are facing forced expulsion as a result of cases brought before Israeli courts, primarily by Jewish settler groups with Israeli government support.
International law prohibits forcible displacement and settlements.
22 European diplomats who visited the Salem family house site and have been investigating a surge in evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes last year piqued media interest in the Salem family issue.
According to OCHA (PDF), at least 317 Palestinians were forcefully evacuated from their houses in East Jerusalem in 2021, with 161 buildings destroyed on the pretence of not having a building permit, which Israeli authorities made difficult to get.
Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, the director of the EU delegation in the occupied Palestinian territory, expressed dismay at the Salem family’s impending removal and asked Israel to stop it.
When von Burgsdorff visited the location on December 23, he told the media that “eleven individuals living in the Salem family’s house are being threatened with eviction in the next few days, during Christmas and in the heart of the winter.”
“As a Christian, this is difficult for me to comprehend.” This is an inhabited area. It is quite legal for people to reside here. They were evacuated from West Jerusalem in 1948 and took refuge here. And now, after 70 years, the government intend to expel them once more, making them refugees.
“It’s inhumane and unjust.”
Fatima’s son, Ibrahim Salem, said the settlers are making their lives difficult, especially on weekends when they are effectively encircled by Israeli settlements on all sides.
Israeli troops have also restricted access to the neighbourhood, preventing supporters and friends from joining the family in solidarity, he added.
“Groups of settlers enter under police protection and throw obscenities and stones at the family and our home, demanding that we leave and claiming ownership of the house and property,” Ibrahim says.
“The cops just stand around and do nothing.” However, any Palestinians who retaliate verbally or with stones are assaulted and jailed.”
Ibrahim and Fatima were beaten by settlers and police last Friday, and Fatima was brought to a hospital in an ambulance.
According to OCHA, Israeli soldiers used tear gas canisters, sound grenades, and physically attacked residents, activists, and journalists.
During the altercation, at least one journalist and one Israeli border policeman were hurt.
The impending evictions of additional Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah provoked a violent confrontation between Palestinian armed organisations in Gaza and the Israeli army last year, resulting in an 11-day battle.
Four Palestinian families facing forced evacuation in Sheikh Jarrah unanimously rejected an Israeli court’s decision on November 2, which required them to recognise settler ownership of the land in East Jerusalem where their houses are located.
According to a UN special rapporteur report, the issue of Sheikh Jarrah “has become symbolic of the risks of forced displacement faced by many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem in order to establish a Jewish majority in the city and create permanent demographic facts on the ground.”
Meanwhile, the Salem family is concerned about their future.
Sabreen, Ibrahim’s wife, expressed concern about her family’s ability to survive the winter if they are forced to sleep outside. Given the uncertainties surrounding their future, she claims her eight-year-old daughter Fatima has nightmares.
“Every time she hears the settlers yelling or the clashes outside, she gets quite scared and begins shivering,” said one of the settlers. Sabreen
“This Friday, when the settlers return to our neighbourhood, we expect more bloodshed.”
