Why Palestinians in East Jerusalem are losing their homes | Start Here

let's talk about why Palestinians in East Jerusalem are

losing

their

homes

Jerusalem is a place unlike anyw

here

else in the world, an ancient city that is considered holy in Islam, Judaism and Christianity, it is also home to Israelis and Palestinians who claim the city as

their

capital, although Jerusalem is The status has never been resolved nor the question of a Palestinian state. T

here

are Israelis and Palestinians who live within a shared city, but that city is not necessarily shared in its entirety. East Jerusalem is the S side of the city that is considered Palestinian territory. According to international law, but it is under Israeli military occupation and for years we have seen things like this: Palestinian families are being evicted from their

homes

, their houses are being demolished at the same time that Israeli settlements are expanding with every eviction, every demolition, space for Palestinians. in East Jerusalem is steadily shrinking, the Israeli government has often said that it is just real estate disputes, but when you talk to the people involved it is clearly much more than the Arabs who say this is Palestine, they lie, the Bible says that this land belongs to For the Jewish people, there are so many layers to what is happening, so we have come to East Jerusalem to help them get a sense of what is really happening and why Nura Gate Sublaban is taking us to the apartment where was born and lived his entire life. life until she was evicted in July 2023 fought a long legal battle that reached the Supreme Court of Israel.

Eviction cases like the noras are mostly being pushed by Israeli settler organizations. These are well-funded groups that promote Jewish settlements in Palestinian neighborhoods in In the Nura case, a group of settlers gained ownership of the property and then built a case to expel Noah even though she had what is called tenure protected. We will explain that later, to understand what is happening in cases like Noeras, we must go back to 1948. After Israel proclaimed itself a state in lands that had previously been Palestine under British control, five Arab countries went to war with Israel and there was a massive displacement of people, including more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced to abandon their homes, this was also a period When hundreds of thousands of Jews were being expelled from Arab countries, the war ended with a series of agreements that divided the land between Israel and the Arab-controlled territories separated by what is called the Green Line.

Jordan controlled the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza, and Jerusalem was divided. in two Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem Jordan controlled East Jerusalem, which includes the old city, a waloff area where the main religious sites of Rel are located. In 1967 there was another war and Israel seized and occupied more land, including East Jerusalem and The West Bank, except for the 1949 green line, still represents the internationally recognized borders of Israel, so technically the green line passes through here dividing West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem, but in practice you can see that there is no real separation here and Israel applies its own set of laws on both sides, albeit in accordance with international standards. law East Jerusalem is Palestinian territory under occupation, so it is not considered sovereign Israeli territory and, under international law, the occupier is supposed to abide by certain rules.

Thanks, an occupying power cannot apply its own legal system in the occupied territory. An occupying power cannot apply its own legal system in the occupied territory. They are not allowed to move civilians from their homes or deport them. Israel continues to apply the wrong law and the wrong courts and it is through the Israeli judicial system that evictions are being carried out in East Jerusalem since 1970. It is estimated that more than 160 families have been evicted at this time, another 200 families and around thousand people are at risk. The eviction process usually begins when settler groups gain ownership of a property where Palestinians live and there is an Israeli law that is really important here, from a legal and administrative point of view.

The law matters and essentially what it does is grant land restitution rights to Jews who supposedly owned property in East Jerusalem before 1948. What does that mean? It basically gives them the right to reclaim assets they lost in the War of 1948. Now it is extremely discriminatory. because there is no parallel legal mechanism for Palestinians who lost property in the same war, so if we go back to Norah's case, a group of Israeli settlers were able to claim ownership of the apartment based on that law, but Norah still had the right to live there because she had that protected tenure we mentioned earlier - it's a type of long-term lease that Jordan granted to Palestinian refugees while it was in charge of East Jerusalem after Israel took control in 1967.

To Palestinians like Norah's family were allowed to keep those leases, but under strict conditions. Once the settlers obtained the rights to No's apartment, they spent decades trying to convince the Israeli courts that she had broken those tenancy conditions and finally managed to evict her in 2023. What we have seen is that over the years There are organizations or groups of settlers. who have exploited and continue to exploit this 1970 law to acquire the rights or supposed rights to these properties and eliminate the protected property of the Palestinian family, are groups of radical settlers who have a particular objective which is to Judaize or Israel see Jerusalem.

Not only are these groups of marginal settlers working individually and on their own, but they have the help and integration of the State at all levels, the ministries, the municipality, the laws and the courts are all instrumentalized to displace the Palestinians as much as possible and increase the number. the Jewish population in Jerusalem, this is a stated goal for Israel, they are not ashamed of it, especially in recent years as Israel's government has become increasingly right-wing and pro-settler politicians have been given positions high level, people like itamar benir, who became minister of national security. In 2022, he himself is a settler, member of parliament, and leader of a far-right party called Jewish Power.

Before becoming a minister, Benir often went to Sh Shar's neighborhood to show his support for the settlers. He even set up a makeshift office. Outside this house where the solemn family lives, an activist settler recently purchased the rights to the solemn family's house and is trying to revive an eviction order from the 1980s that was never enforced and as Fatima and her family fight for staying in their home, they also face harassment from settlers during most weeks. There are rival protests in Shar between Palestinians and activists who support their cause and the settlers. Fatima is one of the regulars, as is the settler who tries evict it yonatan ysf, who is a member of the Jerusalem city council, his house is my house, because I buy from people who have documents that this house is theirs, I buy it and I have laws and according to the law this is my house I am here because the Bible says this area, the entire land of Israel belonged to the Jewish people, but today Jerusalem is important for Muslims, for Christians, for so many millions of people, it is very important, but it belongs to the Jews, so There are settler groups pursuing evictions of Palestinians through Israeli courts.

That is one pattern that develops into another. The way Palestinians are being pushed out of East Jerusalem through restrictions on the construction and demolition of homes that Israeli authorities classify as illegal comes down to the rules Israel imposed after 1967 on how land is allocated and to whom. can build what and where only. 13% was zoned for Palestinian construction and residential development, but those areas were already built out, so there is no real space for new houses and building anything resembling an extension for a growing family requires a permit from the Jerusalem municipality, the process can take years, is expensive and applications are very often rejected, so many Palestinians build without permits anyway, at l

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a third of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem do not have the proper permits and Therefore, Israel considers them illegal, which puts all those houses at risk of demolition.

Arya King is a prominent settler activist who is now deputy mayor of Jerusalem Arabs are not above the law. The Arabs if they want to build legally, they can do it legally, so it's one thing to have the option to build, another thing is to be granted construction permits and you know, various organizations say That just doesn't happen to the Palestinians. Arabs should not come and cry why our house is being demolished when they choose to build illegally but choose not to build with a permit because they save time, they save money and they don't pay taxes.

It's not that Palestinian families want to go build illegally or illegally under Israeli law, but that there is an almost total inability to obtain these building permits. The approval rate is very, very low compared to what is being built and what is being done. approved for Jewish Israelis, you can see the absolute disparity between that, so just to give you an idea of ​​where everything is, there is the old city, this whole area is a Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, you can see how close everything is. On this side there are several eviction cases in progress and down here this entire section is subject to an Israeli demolition plan called al-bustan and the Jerusalem municipality wants to rebuild the area and create a biblical-themed garden that would connect with other religious communities and archaeological sites nearby - there are more than 100 houses here and most of them are considered illegal because they do not have the proper permits even though Palestinians own the land, such as Nidal Al Rajabi, which has an order of demolition of his house.

See the garden. plan and all the technicalities around building permits as a pretext for something bigger, so throughout East Jerusalem Palestinians are fighting to keep their homes and neighborhoods while allocating more money and more land for the Israeli Jews settle here. Settlements have been built in East Jerusalem since 1967, over the years they have expanded and become established residential areas with many amenities such as parks and schools. It has been a while since new Israeli settlements were built, but that is now changing. We are along the southern perimeter. of East Jerusalem what we are seeing right now we are seeing much of the foundation and infrastructure construction in the Gat Matos area Gatos is scheduled to be the first new settlement in East Jerusalem to be built in the last 20 years.

We are talking about thousands of housing units designated for Israeli Jews. Even though it is surrounded by Palestinian neighborhoods, you can actually basically detect a number of different settlement plans found along the southern perimeter. You can see if it connects. The points of how this whole wedge of Israeli settlement construction is created separates East Jerusalem from the southern West Bank, so there is no territorial contiguity necessary for a viable Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem, that idea is central to the so-called settlement solution. two states that was agreed upon 30 years ago as a basis for peace.

Therefore, a Palestinian state alongside Israel with East and West Jerusalem becoming their respective capitals. World leaders still cling to the idea, but in practice any kind of peace process has been dead for years. and what is happening in East Jerusalem helps confirm it, so what is written here