Israel calls on Washington to put pressure on Sheikh Jarrah’s families to accept the “compromise”
The proposal of Judges: Palestinian families should remain in their homes in Sheikh Jarrah as protected tenants, so that their children and grandchildren can stay in them, and pay 1,500 shekels annually to the settlement company "Nahalat Shimon."
Jerusalem24 – Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday, the Israeli government requested that the US administration put pressure on Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, in order to agree to the “settlement proposal” proposed by the Supreme Court judges.
In their approach to the US administration, Israeli government officials claimed that the Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah’s approval of the “settlement proposal” would lead to a solution to the confrontation and reduce international tension over a possible expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in order to bring in settlers.
According to the proposal of Judges Yitzhak Amit, Daphna Barak Erez, and Noam Solberg, Palestinian families should remain in their homes in Sheikh Jarrah as protected tenants, so that their children and grandchildren can stay in them, and pay 1,500 shekels annually to the settlement company “Nahalat Shimon”, which filed a lawsuit demanding the expulsion of the families. Palestinians from their homes and the settlement of settlers there.
The Palestinian families rejected this proposal, and the judges decided to give them seven days in order to submit a list of the names of the owners of the right to the homes so that the judges could formulate an agreement between the Palestinian families and the settlers.
The newspaper quoted an Israeli political source as saying, following the approach to the US administration, that “international pressure regarding Sheikh Jarrah should be directed to the Palestinian arena. The settlement proposed by the judges is good for the Palestinian residents of the neighborhood and can bring them down from the tree.”
Another Israeli source said, that the Joe Biden administration is “concerned about the issue of evacuation, but it does not exert pressure on this issue, because it realizes that the decision is not in the hands of the Israeli political level, but in the hands of the judiciary, which is an independent, serious and impartial body.”
According to the newspaper, there is concern in Israel that the court’s decision will put Israel at the center of an unprecedented political confrontation, including with friendly countries.
In recent months, the Biden administration has repeatedly expressed great concern about the possible expulsion of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah from their homes. Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also warned of the consequences of such an Israeli move. Subsequently, Blinken quickly informed the Israeli government of these warnings.