After being haunted by the specter of eviction for 30 years. Samreen family in Jerusalem extracts historic decision

JERUSALEM – The Israeli Supreme Court has issued a decision granting the Samreen family the right to stay and use their property threatened with eviction in the town of Silwan for the benefit of the settlement company "Hemunta".

The family's lawyer, Wassim Dakour, described the decision as very rare because the Supreme Court does not issue decisions in favor of Jerusalemites in this type of case, noting that the court requested a response from the government's legal adviser and the "Custodian of Absentee Property" department about the case, and although the responses of both sides were not in favor of the family, the court did not take them into account.

In response to a question about whether the Supreme Court's decision has its aftermath, the lawyer confirmed – in his interview with Al Jazeera Net – that "the decision is the first of its kind in which a lawsuit filed by settlers against a Jerusalem family to evict them from the property is dismissed, and may help other families maintain their properties."

In the town of Silwan (Al-Aqsa's neighbor), an atmosphere of joy prevailed over 16 people living in this property, which is dozens of meters from the first two qiblas, and cuts off the connection of the settlement city of David.

Occupation excavations at the entrance to Silwan to complete settlement projects and behind them the house of the Samreen family (Al-Jazeera)

The dream came true

In her first comment on the decision, Amal Samreen told Al Jazeera Net, "I achieved my dream .. I carried the white flag and raised it on the roof of my house and shouted the songs after prostration, thank God."

"Since the beginning of the month of Ramadan, I have been praying to God to keep us in our house and give us victory over our enemies, and I have not been let down," she said. The other wish I hope will come true is that Al-Aqsa Mosque will be liberated."

Her son Ahmed, who has been following the case with lawyers for decades, said: "We haven't heard good news for 30 years, eviction was the only nightmare that haunted us and now we are liberated from it after it is gone forever."

According to this young Jerusalemite, the family paid a high price to keep their property from seizure, and paid about $400,<> for it.

Returning to the origin of the case, Ahmed says that the family's great-grandfather, Musa Samreen, built his house in the forties of the last century on his land, which is tens of meters away from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque from the southern side, in addition to two dunams of empty land in front of the house, which he has been interested in cultivating and reaping its fruits for decades.

The sons of Hajj Musa were displaced in 1967 to Jordan, where his nephew lived with him in the house and bought it from him before his death, and the ownership automatically passed to the son Muhammad Samreen, so he married Amal and they lived in it, and they had 7 sons.

Strategic location

As soon as Haj Musa died in 1983, the occupation authorities transferred the ownership of the property to the "Absentee Property Guard" department, claiming that his children live in Jordan and have no heirs in the country, and this was done without informing the family until they received an eviction paper from the house in 1991, knowing that the property was never empty of residents.

Samreen's family appealed the decision and submitted papers proving that Amal's husband Muhammad bought the house from the great-grandfather, and the courts continued until the family received another eviction order in 2011, and the sessions did not stop and the judge considered that the family is protected by the property because Amal's husband Muhammad is still alive, and after his death in 2015, a new legal battle began.

In recent years, the case has gradually moved from the Magistrate's Court to the Central and Supreme Court, which issued a decision in favor of the family nearly two years after filing a petition.

Amal has not slept comfortably for 30 years because she is haunted by the spectre of forced displacement on the one hand, and by the harm of the settlers surrounding the family on the other, but she will sleep from this night after she took away her right to stay on her property with her children and grandchildren.

This Jerusalemite concluded with the accent of the people of the distinctive town of Silwan by saying, "I am steadfast and will remain so. Our mountains are not shaken by the wind and our roots stretch deep into Jerusalem and cannot be uprooted."