Sheikh Jarrah Court deal to keep families in homes for 15 years

• Author: TOVAH LAZAROFF
• Published date: 04 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

During that time the issue of land ownership could be adjudicated, but in the interim, the court would recognize the families as protects tenants and the Jewish-owned Nahalat Shimon company as the owners of the property.

As protected tenants, the families would have the right to make repairs or renovations to the property. They would be required to pay rent biennially in the sum of NIS 2,400.

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The Palestinian families would also agree to pay legal and court costs in the sum of NIS 30,000 to the Nahalat Shimon Company.

The three judges – Yitzhak Amit, Noam Sohlberg, and Daphne Barak-Erez – said that their decision was not binding and gave both sides until November 2nd to reply to the offer,

The judges said they would accept any amended compromise agreed upon by both sides.

They warned, however, that should the compromise be rejected, they would issue a binding ruling.

At issue is the fate of some 28 families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood who are faced with possible eviction due to a land dispute between them and the Nahalat Shimon Company that claims ownership of the land on which their homes are located.

The company has claimed that it holds the land rights to property, previously owned by two Jewish organizations prior to the 1948 War of Independence.

As a result of the war, the Jewish families that had been living there had to flee to western Jerusalem and Palestinian families from neighborhoods in western Jerusalem and Jaffa fled that neighborhood.

Some 28 of those Palestinian families accepted a Jordanian deal by which they received homes with ownership rights and in exchange relinquished their status as refugees.

Despite the agreement with Jordan...