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NGO: Palestinians face ‘new and imminent eviction threats in the Old City’

February 4, 2019 at 1:17 pm

Activists stage a protest against Israel’s decision on evacuating Palestinian families who live in Sheikh Jarrah, Eastern Jerusalem on 1 February 2019 [Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Anadolu Agency]

Palestinians are facing “new and imminent eviction threats” in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli NGO Ir Amim warned yesterday.

The organisation highlighted “three concurrent cases” which together “give strong evidence of rapidly escalating new facts on the ground – promoted by settlers with the benefit of legal and political support from the state – to further entrench Israeli control in and around the Old City”.

One example cited by Ir Amim is the pending eviction of the seven-member Abu Asab family, who have until 12 February before they will be displaced in the Muslim Quarter, following a settler-initiated court process.

Just 100 metres away, Ir Amim added, “the Ghaith-Sub Laban family is under renewed threat of eviction”. Last week, “more than two years after the Supreme Court decision, the family received notice that the settler-managed Gengel Trust has filed a new eviction demand in the Magistrate Court based on the claim of home abandonment”.

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Ir Amim notes that “there are a total of 8 families at risk of eviction on the two aforementioned streets of the Muslim Quarter: 6 families on Khalidiya Street and an additional 2 families on Al Qarami Street”.

Meanwhile, 3 February marked “the eviction date issued by the Execution Office against the Sabbagh family in Sheikh Jarrah”.

“If evicted,” Ir Amim continued, “the Sabbagh family home will be the 10th to be seized by settlers in the Kerem Alja’oni section of Silwan, where roughly 30 Palestinian families are currently under threat of eviction”.

“At least 11 have cases pending in court – cases that were suspended pending the Supreme Court decision on the Sabbagh eviction. Removal of that stop-gap could usher in a wave of new evictions in this section of Sheikh Jarrah,” the update concluded.