What is Happening in Sheikh Jarrah Now?
The Salem Family managed to get the displacement orders postponed, but what is next?
Jerusalem24 – As Human Rights Activists, institutions, and friends of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood organized a sit-in in front of the Israeli Magistrate Court in Jerusalem last Monday, the court postponed the displacement of the Salem family from their home in Sheikh Jarrah.
The lawyers demanded the annulment of the eviction decision, but the judge suspended the decision to issue the confirmation order within days and transfer the file to what is called the Procedure Department due to a defect in the settlers’ procedures. It may open the door to full cancellation.
According to Bodour Hassan, a legal researcher at the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), “the reason the court postponed the eviction, was because the police did not want to carry out the eviction during the holy month of Ramadan, and they did not want to repeat what happened last Ramadan.”
The Israeli military and security apparatus feared any form of escalation in the city of occupied Jerusalem spreading into the West Bank or Israel. They have even isolated the northern occupied West Bank from the rest of the region to do the same during their recent activities in the Jenin Governorate.
The legal implications are complex, and the threat of displacement is still very real. The Salem family live in an area of Sheikh Jarrah called Umm Haroun. “The people who live there are classified as protected tenants under Israeli law,” says Hassan. The Shamasneh family, another family from the Um Haroun area was evicted from their home in 2017.
In this episode of Wake Up Palestine, we speak to Bodour Hassan, from JLAC about the details regarding the fate of the Salem Family. To hear the entire interview click below.
