The settlement association aims to seize 87 apartments

An open confrontation between "Batin Al Hawa" and "Ateret Cohonim" ... and the victim is 1,200 Maqdisi

• Homes threatened by settlement takeover.

  Emirates today

• Chairman of the Committee for the Defense of the People of Silwan Fakhri Abu Diab.

  Archives

• Zuhair al-Rajabi in front of his house, which is under threat of confiscation, with "the stomach of love."

  Emirates today

• Picket tent.

  Emirates today

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In Batn al-Hawa neighborhood, the middle neighborhood of the three lanes of the Silwan neighborhood south of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and 400 meters from the southern wall to Al-Aqsa, the old narrow alleys built on a high hill witness a fierce battle, which is taking place between the Jerusalemites and the Ateret Cohonim settlement association. .

Residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood are waging an open legal and political battle, inside the corridors of the occupation courts, against a scheme aimed at evacuating and displacing them from their original neighborhood, in which they have resided for decades, as the settlement association plans to seize land in Batn al-Hawa, with an area of ​​five acres and 200 square meters. 16 residential buildings, consisting of 87 apartments, occupy 1,200 Jerusalemites.

The seizure of the homes of Jerusalemites in the "Batn Al-Hawa" neighborhood is considered the largest displacement that the city has witnessed in 53 years, following what the honor neighborhood witnessed in the Old City in the Holy City of Jerusalem in 1967, as the "Ateret Cohonim" settlement plan causes the displacement of the residents of the houses After its seizure, under the pretext that its ownership belonged to Yemeni Jews more than 200 years ago.

Conflict of identity papers

The battle of Zuhair al-Rajabi, a spokesman for the people of Batn al-Hawa, and a Jerusalemite who was told by “Ateret Cohenim” to seize his house, which he has lived in for decades, began in the corridors of the courts in May of 2015, when he received a lawsuit filed against him by representatives. From the Israeli endowments, to increase its intensity now with the renewal of that lawsuit against him.

Al-Rajabi (50 years old) said to “Emirates Today”: “After the occupation court’s decision in favor of (Ateret Cohenim), I and my family of seven members are open to displacement at any moment, and this is the case of 1,200 Jerusalemites, who live in 87 apartments, inside The 16 buildings threatened to be seized ».

Al-Rajabi owns identification papers confirming that his father bought 150 square meters of land with a total area of ​​five dunams and 200 square meters during the reign of the Jordanian guardianship over the city of Jerusalem, before its occupation in 1967, and after he inherited it from his father, the house became composed of several floors, all of them Subject to confiscation.

Al-Rajabi said, "The settlers claim that the land on which our homes are built dates back to 1891, under the pretext of ownership of the land paper. They claimed that there were 73 rooms that were inhabited by Yemeni Jews."

He added that the residents of Batn al-Hawa neighborhood possess identity papers confirming that the Yemeni Jews left the neighborhood before the establishment of Israel in 1948, and that the land on which the houses were built belonged to the Jerusalemite families since 1892, at the time of the Ottoman era, and they have proof of that.

A tale of displacement

The head of the committee to defend the people of Silwan, Fakhri Abu Diab, says that what is happening in Batn al-Hawa neighborhood is part of the plan to liquidate the Arab presence in the city of Jerusalem, as the occupation relies on several means to displace Jerusalemites, including preventing building permits, demolishing existing homes, and The seizure of Palestinian property, as Ateret Cohenim claims that these properties and lands belonged to them before the Nakba in 1948.

He added that «(Ateret Cohenim), which is a private association with official cover, the occupation provides it with financial, judicial and executive support, despite the fact that they do not possess evidence or documents, with the aim of creating outposts within Arab neighborhoods and emptying them of the Jerusalemite population."

According to Abu Diab, the story of the conflict between the original inhabitants of Batn al-Hawa and the settlement Ateret Cohonim began when the settlers' association established its first foothold in the neighborhood in 2004, when it seized a house belonging to the Al-Ragabi family.

The matter escalated in 2014, when the association handed residents decisions to evacuate their homes, claiming that they were living on land owned by Yemeni Jews before 1948, so a house owned by the Abunab family was seized, under the pretext of establishing a cultural center for Yemeni Jews.

Solidarity tent

As a result of the intensification of the legal battle in the corridors of the courts against “Ateret Cohenim,” the people of “Batn Al-Hawa” are currently building a large tent in front of their homes that are under threat of confiscation for the benefit of the settlers' association, which has turned into a headquarters for Jerusalem and Palestinian solidarity, as well as European and Israeli solidarity as well, with families threatened with displacement.

The spokesman for the people of Batn al-Hawa says that all the Jerusalemite families in the “Batn al-Hawa” neighborhood have set up a tent for a sit-in and in solidarity with the families threatened with expulsion, to face the battle of eviction from our homes with solid solidarity, to block the path of mass displacement.

He added, "The aim of staying in the Solidarity tent is for our voice to reach the countries of the world, especially after a diplomatic delegation visited us inside the tent, so that settlement expansion would stop, at the expense of our homes and lands, so that the scenes of forced displacement would not be repeated again."

It is noteworthy that the sit-in tent is witnessing a large turnout of Jerusalemites from all the towns, in addition to the European solidarity activists and the Israelis, who are active in anti-settlement institutions.

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As a result of the intensification of the legal battle in the corridors of the courts against “Ateret Cohenim,” the people of “Batn Al-Hawa” are currently building a large tent in front of their homes that are threatened with confiscation for the benefit of the settlers' association, which has turned into a headquarters for Jerusalem and Palestinian solidarity, as well as European and Israeli solidarity as well, with families threatened with displacement.

- The story of the conflict between the original inhabitants of Batn al-Hawa and the settlement Ateret Kohonim, which began when the settlers' association established its first foothold in the neighborhood in 2004, when it seized a house belonging to the Al-Rajabi family.

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