Israeli authorities decided, last week, that settlers will take over part of a Palestinian home in East Jerusalem, local sources reported.Based on a decision issued by an Israeli court last week, a Palestinian family has been ordered to share their home with Israeli settlers in the neighborhood of Rad al-Amoud, in East Jerusalem.
The court decision followed an 11-year legal battle between the Hamdella family and Irving Moskowitz, renowned to be an American-Israeli billionaire and settler patron. Moskowitz purchased the property in 1990 from Chabad and the Volhynia Hassidic dynasty, a Jewish group who claims to own the land from before 1948.
The Hamdallahs are expected to evacuate a room and their yard, on Monday, to make way for right-wing Israeli settlers who are likely to hamper their neighbors’ daily routine.
Dimitry Delyani, member of the Fatah revolutionary council, was quoted by Ma’an News agency saying: ‘The home will be turned into an outpost, the settlers will bring in armed guards in order to make life for the Hamdellas unbearable,’
The Palestinian family has lived in the home since 1952.
In 2005, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the Palestinian family was forced to vacate parts of the home built after 1989. The order included a shed and a storehouse.
Sixteen Palestinians currently live in the disputed house. A couple and a child live in the bedroom that the court ordered to be evacuated.
A family member named Khaled Hamdallah was cited by Haaretz commenting: ‘Three people live in this room…We don’t know what to do. I don’t even care anymore. I feel like dying. They want to throw us out completely. The police is with them, the judges are with them. So what’s the point?’
The Hamdallah home sits next to Ma’aleh Zeitim, an enclave of 100 Jewish families surrounded by a wall in the heart of Ras al-Amoud neighborhood. A construction project set to include 14 new housing units for Jewish families is nearly completed.
