‘I have been defeated’: hundreds of Palestinians face eviction from East Jerusalem | Palestine
TThe dome of Al-Aqsa Mosque glistened in the afternoon autumn sun as Zohair Rajabi looked out at the skyline of Jerusalem’s Old City from her balcony. While Christian pilgrims emerged from the buses, Jewish worshipers gathered outside the gates of the Western Wall.
New flags now fly just meters from Rajabi’s home. These signs, blue and white with a Star of David, indicate where residents are located. was recently released from their homes by Israeli police. After more than 20 years of activism, Rajabi knows his days in Batn al-Hawa, a predominantly Palestinian town less than a mile south of the Old City, are almost certainly numbered.
The 55-year-old actor said, “Yes, I lost. I was defeated. I expect not only my house to be taken, but every house here to be taken.”
Rajabi lived in Batn al-Hawa all his life. His house is a rambling four-story house built on land his grandfather bought in 1965. His siblings and mother live on different floors, along with many children. Two of his relatives are severely disabled. If, as everyone in Batn al-Hawa expects, Rajabi’s request to file a final legal challenge in Israeli courts is rejected, everyone will be forced to take action.
“We know what the decision will be… but we’ll still fight. I think within the month all 52 of us will have to find somewhere else to live,” he said.
Batn al-Hawa has long been a target of right-wing Israeli organizations seeking to consolidate Israeli control over parts of Jerusalem captured after Jordan’s defeat in the 1967 war.
such an organization Ateret CohanimIt describes itself as “the leading urban land reclamation organization in Jerusalem… working to revitalize Jewish life in the heart of ancient Jerusalem for over 40 years.”
The group argues that much of Batn al-Hawa lies on the site of a village built by a charitable foundation under Ottoman rule in the late 19th century to house poor Yemeni Jews. When tensions rose between Arabs and Jews in Palestine in the 1930s, the community was evacuated by British authorities and its residents were told they could return when calm was restored, but they did not.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the foundation, which was relaunched nearly 20 years ago, successfully argued in Israeli courts that previous ownership of properties in Batn al-Hawa should take precedence over any subsequent purchases by current residents or their parents or grandparents. A 1970 law gives Jewish people the right to reclaim property in East Jerusalem.
Ownership of some buildings was also obtained through agreements with their owners, but their terms are still disputed.
Daniel Luria, a spokesman for Ateret Cohanim, said the organization, which settled about 40 Jewish families in Batn al-Hawa, is independent of the foundation but has ties to it.
There has been a sudden wave of releases following a series of decisions by Israeli judges in recent months.
Ir Amim, a Jerusalem-based NGO operating in Batn al-Hawa, said Rajabi and his family were among 34 families of about 175 people who face “imminent displacement and settlers taking over their homes.”
If implemented, this could lead to “the largest expulsion and coordinated state and settler takeover of a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem since 1967,” said Amy Cohen, a spokeswoman for Ir Amim.
Luria likened the current resistance to the evacuation of the inhabitants of Batn el-Hawa, which he called Siloah, to “Custer’s last stand.”
“I understand, but… they are illegal squatters on properties from which Jews were expelled in the 1930s,” he said.
Rajabi attributes the recent wave of evacuations to the war in Gaza. “The war is a big factor. If there was no war, you would see an evacuation maybe once every 10 years instead of five in 15 months. The war created an atmosphere where you could achieve this… An atmosphere of hatred,” he said.
Israel’s ruling coalition, the most right-wing government in its history, includes extremist ministers deeply committed to the project of expanding Jewish settlements in Israel’s unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Approximately 40% of Jerusalem’s population about 1 million He is Palestinian. Preserving the Jewish majority in the city has been the goal of successive Israeli governments.
In September, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should annex 82% of the occupied West Bank.
Luria said he supported Smotrich’s proposal “a thousand percent.” “When the Jews came back in 1948, that wasn’t the end of it, or in 1967… the Zionist dream wasn’t over,” he said.
Rajabi isn’t sure where he and his family would go if he is released. Three of his four children are teenagers and finding a home for them all will be difficult, he said, adding: “The government and the settlers want us out of Jerusalem.”
On the walls of Rajabi’s home is a painting of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, located on the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and the holiest currently accessible place of worship in Judaism.
Rajabi’s 15-year-old daughter, Dahreen, stated that the possibility of leaving her home made her sad and said, “Every stone here is a memory for me. I am very worried that we will disperse as a family and that I will be away from my friends. But no matter what, I take my cat with me.”
