Israel is set to evict 87 Palestinian residents from their homes in Batn Al Hawa neighbourhood, after living in their homes for decades.
The Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz" reported that the Central Court in occupied Jerusalem had issued an order to evict 87 Palestinians from their lands, claiming that these lands are owned by Jewish settlers.
"The court approved the request of the extremist settlement "Ateret Cohenim" organization, and approved the eviction of 87 Palestinians from their lands in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa, on the claim that it belonged to the Jews before 1948," Haaretz added.
Haaretz described the decision as a new victory for the extremist Jewish settlement associations, pointing out that the occupying power helps the extremist settlement Ateret Cohenim Association to build neighborhoods and outposts, in the middle of Arab villages in occupied Jerusalem.
Zuhair al-Rajabi, a member of the Committee for Defending Batn al-Hawa, affirmed that the residents have been in a struggle with the occupation and its settlers since 2015, when settlement associations claimed that five dunams and 200 meters of the neighborhood's lands were owned by Jews in the year 1890.
" In fact, the neighborhood’s residents, about 1,200 Jerusalemites, bought those lands from other Palestinians after the occupation seized their homes in West Jerusalem, specifically in the 1960s," Al-Rajabi explained.
Eviction of of Jerusalemites
The Jerusalemite analyst Rasem Obeidat said that targeting Batn al-Hawa falls in the same context as Sheikh Jarrah and other neighborhoods in the Old City of Jerusalem, to build the settlement project known as the "Holy Basin."
Obeidat stated that the occupation ignores even the identity papers the residents possess which confirm their ownership of their lands, warning that the occupation deliberately displaces the Palestinians and practices their right to ethnic cleansing in various ways.
He indicated that the occupation granted settlers supervision over Batn Al Hawa in 200, considering the occupation's response to the three families' petition proves that the occupation is building the Holy Basin project on Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan's lands, including Wadi Al Rababa, Batn Al Hawa and the Old City.
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