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Last update - 00:00 09/11/2008
Elderly Palestinian couple evicted from East Jerusalem home despite U.S. protest
By Michael Bahl
Tags: Israel News, U.S., Jerusalem 

In a pre-dawn operation in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, scores of police officers and IDF troops Sunday evicted an elderly Palestinian couple from their home, despite protests by the United States, other countries, and human rights groups.

Security forces also detained several activists of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement who had been sleeping on the family's property, and expelled them to the adjacent West Bank, without pressing charges.
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A Jerusalem court in July ruled that the east Jerusalem housing provided to Mohammed al-Kurd and his wife Fawzieh in 1956 by the Jordanian government and a UN refugee agency was built on land to which their title was in doubt and they must vacate the property.

The case came to international attention when U.S. diplomats lodged an official protest with Israel for harming Palestinians and for anti-Palestinian actions taken by settlers, citing as one example the eviction of the al-Kurd family from their home in the Shimon Hatzadik complex in Sheikh Jarrah.

For months, a group of settlers has also lived in a portion of the house, maintaining that an Ottoman-era bill of sale grants ownership of the Shimon Hatzadik property to the Committee for the Sephardic Group. The Jerusalem District Court issued a ruling in favor of the Sephardic Group,which transferred the property to a settler organization called "Shimon's Estate."

The settler group, in turn, sought to evict the al-Kurd family, refugees from West Jerusalem, who have lived in the house since the early 1950s.
At 4:45 on Sunday morning, some 20 IDF vehicles and seven police minibuses sealed off much of the neighborhood, prior to the eviction, witnesses said.

The al-Kurds were then taken from the apartment, which they have been sharing with Israeli settlers since 1999, when Israeli courts evicted their son Raed from an added wing of the property. The couple has been fighting for their property through the courts ever since, but in July 2008 they were ordered to vacate the premises at once.

Israel Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that following the court order naming a Jewish family as the legal owner of the house, "The Arab family was evicted. Two people were, in fact removed from the house," he told Haaretz, referring to the al-Kurds.

"There were also seven tourists, left-wing activists, who were removed." ISM members said that there were eight activists taken from the house, nationals of Denmark, Sweden, the United States, England and Canada.

Danish ISM activist Anders Pilmark, 20, said that 40 to 50 IDF soldiers and police woke them up at 4:45 A.M. and immediately started to clear out the al-Kurd's apartment. The activists were detained on suspicion of trespassing, but were later escorted to the West Bank's Qalandiya checkpoint with no charges pressed.

The couple's neighbor's gathered Sunday morning outside the closed perimeter set up by the IDF. They have been following the case closely, and believe that the court decision and forced eviction of the family paves the way for the takeover of 27 multi-storey houses in the neighbourhood, threatening to make 500 Palestinians homeless.

"This is only the first. Just you wait and see," one of the neighbors said.

Rafiq Husseini, an aide to Palestiniann President Mahmoud Abbas, has been quoted as warning that the takeover of the Kurds' home was part of a wider drive to change the geography of Jerusalem by forcing out Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli settlers. "Such a development would deal a death blow to already-strained peace negotiations," he wrote in a letter to foreign consulates in Jerusalem

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      1.   Squatting/stealing for decades doesn`t make it theirs 16:03  |  Dani 09/11/08
      2.   KANGAROO LAWS & JUSTICE SYSTEM 16:15  |  Che 09/11/08
      3.   U.S. influence over Israel 16:35  |  Bitin Dawg 09/11/08
      4.   Double standards 16:36  |  JJ 09/11/08
      5.   ISM is not a "pro-palestinian" group 16:37  |  Arie 09/11/08
      6.   Bitin Dawg is rabid 16:55  |  Avi 09/11/08
      7.   Eviction notices in East Jeruslem..... 16:58  |  Stephen. 09/11/08
      8.   No Sharon - Is NOT accurately quoted 16:59  |  GZLives 09/11/08
      9.   Settlements are also illegal 17:00  |  KEN 09/11/08
      10.   #3 Dawg 17:06  |  Che 09/11/08
      11.   Israel is a liberal democracy where all are bound by its law, all 17:12  |  Joel 09/11/08
      12.   an Ottoman-era bill?? 17:15  |  Native 09/11/08
      13.   Civil Case or Apartheid? 17:35  |  Peter 09/11/08
      14.   "Such a development would deal a death blow to a dead process" 17:37  |  Emanuel 09/11/08
      15.   "Such a development would deal a death blow to a dead process" 17:37  |  Emanuel 09/11/08
      16.   refugees and land robery 17:49  |  bashar 09/11/08
      17.   Chu & Biten dalg 18:10  |  David 09/11/08
      18.   When the U.S. is siding with the Palestinians..... 18:21  |  Swiss (Dino) 09/11/08
      19.   The occupiers will soon be gone. 18:29  |  Lou Medel 09/11/08
      20.   #1 Dani 18:35  |  Suspiciuos 09/11/08
      21.   #1 Dani 18:41  |  ballistic 09/11/08
      22.   If this left wing anti Zionest court ruled this way 19:20  |  Jew 09/11/08
      23.   Ashamed of my own Jewishness 19:25  |  Yoav 09/11/08
      24.   JJ has gaps in his/her knowledge 19:29  |  Israeli 09/11/08
      25.   Callous beyond belief 19:45  |  Ben Alofs 09/11/08
      26.   Send these squatting Kurds back to Kurdistan 19:47  |  Avi 09/11/08
      27.   So divide Washington and give the Pals East Washington 19:56  |  AniAshkeloni 09/11/08
      28.   HoW many Times, Does Jews Have to Demonstrate their Greed 20:08  |  Williams 09/11/08
      29.   IT REMINDS ME OF NAZI GERMANY 20:46  |  Alka Seltzer 09/11/08
      30.   to bashar...the land belongs to Jews. But if you really want to 20:52  |  spade 09/11/08
      31.   Dani - Jews have been stealing and squatting since 1948 20:58  |  Palestinian Brit 09/11/08
      32.   Haaretz talkback 21:00  |  jh 09/11/08
      33.   And Israel wants peace? 21:00  |  Palestinian Brit 09/11/08
      34.   Arie - ISM an arm of Fatah? 21:03  |  Palestinian Brit 09/11/08
      35.   #3:Bitin Dawg, Fake quotes don`t help 21:03  |  DOC HOLLIDAY 09/11/08
      36.   Israel, a country which has lost its soul 21:07  |  Crying woman 09/11/08
      37.   Israel losing credibility 21:21  |  Pierre Palestinian 09/11/08
      38.   Lou Medel from Prescott, Arizona 22:01  |  Nephtaly 09/11/08
      39.   if this is how its going to be then let the rockets rain on you 22:23  |  Enforcer 09/11/08
      40.   Enforcer 22:29  |  Nephtaly 09/11/08
      41.   How about the Americans being evicted from their houses? 22:48  |  Ari 09/11/08
      42.   the Gestapo in action again 23:01  |  Susie 09/11/08
      43.   Bashar the reality of it is......... 23:43  |  John Phee 09/11/08
      44.   Squatters are Squatters... 23:44  |  Barry 09/11/08
      45.   Its happened before 23:46  |  Saadeh 09/11/08
      46.   Evict elderly refugees, but shower support on illegal settlers 23:46  |  Sarah 09/11/08
      47.   Susie, are you a squatter as well? 23:50  |  Barry 09/11/08
      48.   Wow, what`s that smell???? 00:25  |  Johnboy 10/11/08
      49.   Squatters and Usurpers... 00:51  |  Rachamim Ben Ami 10/11/08
      50.   CONGRATULATION ISRAEL 00:53  |  indrajaya 10/11/08
      51.   You are right, Johnboy, this case stinks to high heaven 1 01:14  |  Ben Alofs 10/11/08
      52.   When pals realize that their home is in Jordan... 01:16  |  JP 10/11/08
      53.   No Good Just Because... 01:17  |  Yosemite 10/11/08
      54.   I agree, Johnboy, this case stinks to high heaven 2 01:43  |  Ben Alofs 10/11/08
      55.   #49 Rachamim Ben Ami is talking about justice 01:54  |  Ben Alofs 10/11/08
      56.   Indrajaya According To Your Logic 01:58  |  Yosemite 10/11/08
      57.   up yours america 02:49  |  VIPER 10/11/08
      58.   WWIII will start in the M.E, and it is israel that starts it 02:56  |  VIPER 10/11/08
      59.   JP? the palestinian homeland is Palestine 02:58  |  not jordan 10/11/08
      60.   No mention of the Jews also being evicted 02:59  |  Free Gilad Shalit 10/11/08
      61.   `Free Gilad Shalit`? please give links for 03:42  |  jews being 10/11/08
      62.   When Jews are evicted you cheer 05:06  |  Ilan 10/11/08
      63.   Micky mouse Justice 05:44  |  sharif 10/11/08
      64.   just an exscuse for rascism 09:24  |  SJ 10/11/08
      65.   Johnboy: About the smell, that was the ISM "workers" these are 09:44  |  Propal l 10/11/08
      66.   # 12 Native - You are mistaken 10:18  |  Michael Jacobs 10/11/08
      67.   #55 Ben Alofs - No legal standing 12:13  |  Michael Jacobs 10/11/08
      68.   Re: Ottoman-era bill? 16:37  |  LeaNder 10/11/08
      69.   the settlers had 2 eviction notices 15:31  |  illegal 13/11/08
      70.   Elderly Couple Evicted 21:04  |  Zion Segal 29/11/08
      71.   If they do it to Jews in Gush Katif 13:08  |  Shmuel 22/03/09
      72.   #1 Dani 21:56  |  WRONG 23/03/09
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