Action replay of 1948 events stares at Sheikh Jarrah families

By Salam Abu-Sharar

JERUSALEM (AA) – An action replay of events is happening with the Al-Kurd family, living in limbo in the East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah district.

Nearly 73 years ago, the family faced eviction from their ancestral home in the northern port city of Haifa located on the slopes of Mount Mar Elias under similar circumstances.

The fragile truce between Israel and Palestinian resistance group Hamas may have brought an uneasy quiet to the district, but the second eviction from their adopted homes stares at the families.

Nabeel al-Kurd, 77, was four years old when his family faced the first forcible eviction from their home in 1948.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Nabeel narrated painful memories of Israeli forces along with Zionist gangs attacking the city and detaining his father for nine months after seizing their family restaurant.

“My father was taking me to the restaurant. He had employed workers to take care of me as a child. One of them was a Palestinian Jew. But not Zionist,” said the misty-eyed Nabeel, traveling in the memory lane.

The family’s fortunes tumbled down after leaving Haifa. For the next eight years, they lived in a 16-square-meter room.

“That one room was everything, bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom for all the members of the family,” said Nabeel, narrating the family’s journey from riches to rags.

Hope arrived in 1956 when Jordan signed an agreement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees. As many as 28 displaced families were given homes in the Shaikh Jarrah neighborhood, in exchange for giving up their claims on their ancestral homes and refugee document issued by the UN agency.

“Since 1972 the Israeli settlement associations started filing lawsuits claiming ownership of these homes,” said Nabeel.

- Forged Ottoman documents

Questioning the rationale of this claim, he said these lawsuits say the Jews owned these properties before 1948. But they were built in 1956. “How can they claim to own them before 1948?” Nabeel asked.

In 1972, the Sephardic Committee, an Israeli settler association, and the Knesset Committee of Israel claimed that they owned land and houses since 1885. They claimed having procured documents of ownership from the Ottoman officials when they were ruling Palestine.

“Our advocate traveled to Turkey to see Ottoman Archives, then he concluded that these documents are forged. None of them was found on the archives,” said Nabeel.

In 1998, after Nabeel had twins, Muna and Mohammad, he decided to enlarge the house.

“In 2000, when I finished the work, the Israeli occupation forces came and closed the newly built expanded part,” he said.

For the next nine years, his plea to open the closed part of his house has been hanging in an Israeli court, which is being contested by the settlers’ associations.

“In 2009, the Israeli government allowed many settlers to live in the locality. Now, just a wall separates my family and the settlers,” Nabeel said.

After the 1948 Palestinian exodus when more than 700,000 Arabs were expelled from their homes -- referred to as Nakba or catastrophe by Palestinians -- 28 families settled in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem in 1956, hoping that would be the last displacement.

But these families, whose number has grown to 38 since then, say they are experiencing Nakba daily.

Accepting right-wing Israeli settlers ‘plea, an Israeli court earlier this year ordered the eviction of four Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Their homes were taken over by settlers who were quick to hoist Israeli flags on them, marking a new phase for the suffering of the Palestinians in the neighborhood.

- Running from pillar to post

So far, 12 Palestinian families have received eviction orders issued by the Israeli central and magistrates courts.

Since then Al-Kurd family is running from pillar to post, trying every bit by launching a social media camping to save their homes. Their Save Shaikh Jarrah campaign gained considerable momentum.

Outside their home twins, Muna and Mohammad, are distributing pamphlets drawing attention against their eviction. Singing, drawing on the walls, and preparing food together, residents are using every means of peaceful resistance to save their homes braving rubber bullets, tear gas shells, and raids.

“On May 19th a girl Sabreen, 15, received a rubber bullet in her spine. Her father was also shot at,” said Mohammad.

Muna is engaging with human rights organizations. On May 27, he attended the UNHRC meeting and narrated the story of eviction.

At a zoom meeting, when he was forcefully asking Israelis not to play victimhood card and get out of Palestinian land, the administer removed her from the meeting.

- Repeat of events

“The Israeli occupation wants to repeat with my sons the events I went through in 1948. Muna and Mohammad have decided to save their home as well as their neighborhood. They not afraid anymore,” Nabeel said.

While the UN and other international organizations have voiced their concern and supported their cause, but largely they have failed to initiate punitive actions against Israel, which has continuously violated international law.

Mohammad said all they were asking the international community is to force Israel to abide by norms and upload international law to protect Palestinians not only in Shaikh Jarrah but across Palestine.

He said in Silwan -- a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood on the outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem -- over 800 people are being thrown out of their homes.

“We have many farmers losing their lands to settlement activities,” he said.