The High Court of Justice scheduled a hearing for Monday on the eviction of four Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, the east Jerusalem neighborhood known in Hebrew as Shimon HaTzadik. Lower courts have upheld claims that the property is owned by the Nahalat Shimon Company, which seeks to develop the land for Jewish housing.
Even if the verdict allows for the eviction of the Palestinian residents, the court is unlikely to order the state to enact it or give a deadline to do so, the source close to Bennett said, and the government will take advantage of that in order to not fuel the flames of conflict in Jerusalem.
The story of Sheikh Jarrah’s residents has received international attention, and not evicting them will refute claims that the round of fighting between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza in May began because of evictions in the Jerusalem neighborhood, the source added.
Israel has argued that Hamas, which shot a rocket into Jerusalem followed by thousands into other parts of Israel, took up the issue of Jerusalem and escalated its attacks on the Jewish state as part of a power struggle with the Palestinian Authority after the PA canceled a parliamentary election.
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In previous hearings on the matter of Sheikh Jarrah, Nahalat Shimon was able to prove a chain of ownership for the property going back to Jewish families before the establishment of the State of Israel.
The four families whose homes are in question are part of a group of 28 who fled their homes in other parts of Israel during the 1948 War of Independence and came to east Jerusalem, which was in Jordanian hands after the war. Jordan gave them housing in Sheikh Jarrah, on land owned by Jews; in exchange, they gave up their refugee status.
They are barred by Israeli law from reclaiming their homes in places like western Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa. The Sheikh Jarrah land was originally owned by two Jewish organizations, but has now passed into the hands of Nahalat Shimon.