Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood in Jerusalem

A rotten smell hangs over Sheikh Jarrah, a small neighborhood of East Jerusalem where Demonstrators are seeking to stop Israel from expelling Palestinian families and allowing settlers to take over their places. Over the past week, occupational police had frequently spray foul-smelling liquid known as (skunk water) that lingers through the night to disperse the Demonstrators.

The standoff has seen intense clashes around the walled Old City. On Monday led to rocket fire by Gaza militants, inducing occupational airstrikes on Gaza that health officials there said killed 9 Palestinians. And this was only the beginning.

JERUSALEM

In the aftereffect of the 1948 eviction of Palestinians by Zionist gangs to pave the way for the creation of the country of occupation, numbers of thousands of Palestinians were driven to flee their homes in historic Palestine to adjacent countries.

Following these issues, the Palestinian Nakba, 28 families lived in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in 1956. Hoping that could be the last time they are forced out of their homes.

But these families, whose number has grown to 38 since then, state they are experiencing a renewed Nakba on a daily basis.

The occupational Central Court in East Jerusalem accepted a decision earlier this year to expel four Palestinian families from their houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in support of right-wing Occupiers.

Occupational Supreme Court was scheduled to issue a ruling on the evictions on Thursday but was delayed until May 10. Amid heated demonstrations and clashes between Palestinians and occupational settlers, the decision was delayed again.

In the issue that the court rules in favor of the homesteaders, the Palestinian families will miss their homes. Other families will encounter a similar fate.

Beginning of tragedy

In 1956, the 28 refugee families who lost their homes during the Nakba reached an agreement with the Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Development and the UN refugee agency UNRWA to provide housing for them in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

At that time, the West Bank was under Jordanian rule (1951-1967).

According to the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, the Jordanian government provided the land while UNRWA covered the cost of constructing 28 homes for these families.

“A contract was concluded between the Ministry of Construction and Reconstruction and Palestinian families in 1956. With one of the main conditions stating that the residents pay a symbolic fee, provided that ownership is transferred to the residents after three years from the completion of construction,” the CCPRJ said in a statement.

This, however, was interrupted by the occupation of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in 1967 which prevented the registration of the houses under the names of families, the statement included.

Jordan’s reaction

Latest week, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry stated it had given the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 14 ratified approvals meant for the people of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem which maintain their claim of their lands and property.

In a statement, the ministry stated: It handed over a certificate to the residents proving that the Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Development concluded an approval with UNRWA to build 28 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah to be delegated and registered in the names of these families.

The ministry said it had formerly provided the Palestinian side with all the scripts that would assist Jerusalemites to maintain their complete rights. Contain grease contracts, lists of beneficiaries’ names, and a copy of the approval concluded with UNRWA in 1954.

Evictions begin :

For years, occupational courts have heard cases submitted by settlement relationships against Palestinian residents. As well as Palestinian appeals against court rulings issued in favor of homesteaders.

In November 2008, the al-Kurd family was expelled from their house, followed b Hanoun and Al-Ghawi families in August 2009.

Their houses were taken over by settlers who were quick to arise occupational flags on them. Marking a new stage for the suffering of the Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah’s neighborhood.

So far, 12 Palestinian families in the neighborhood have received removal orders issued by the occupational central and magistrates’ courts.

Most lately, four Palestinian families filed a petition with the Supreme Court, Israel’s largest judicial body, against a judgment to discharge them from their houses.

Al-Sabbagh, a man of a family of 32-member including 10 children, is full of fear since the court verdict will make him and his family refugees again.

In 1948, al-Sabbagh’s family had fled their home in Jaffa, which is now populated by occupation.

The Palestine – occupational fight back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous Balfour Declaration, called for “the build-up Palestine of a national house for the Jewish people.”