The Israeli Nature and Parks Authority storms the land of the Owais family in Jerusalem, which is threatened with confiscation, and bulldozes it in anticipation of the court’s decision (Al Jazeera)

Occupied Jerusalem -

This morning, crews from the “Israeli National Parks Authority” and the “Jerusalem Development Authority (Harley)” stormed the land of “Souq Al-Jumaa” or “The Trench” adjacent to the northeastern corner of the Jerusalem Wall.

The bulldozers began bulldozing a large portion of the asphalt on the plot of land owned by Jerusalemite families, with the protection of the police and occupation forces, a week after closing the land with cement cubes and preventing its owners from using it.

Although the landowners asked the occupation police to provide them with papers confirming the intrusion and bulldozing, the latter violently expelled them, refused to show them any of the documents, and searched them humiliatingly, and claimed that the action of the Parks and Jerusalem Development Authority was supported by the legal advisor to the Israeli police.

The occupation police temporarily closed the “Friday Market” land on the sixth of this month, after crews from the two authorities stormed it before midnight and attempted to carry out bulldozing work. The owners then organized vigils and sit-ins in the land, and headed to the Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem.

This morning, the occupation authorities began bulldozing the land of the Friday market adjacent to the Jerusalem Wall, near the Yusufiya cemetery, before a court decision was issued.

The Central Court recently rejected the petition submitted by the families owning the land, after the land was stormed and closed with cement cubes last week pic.twitter.com/LCrpdYOGi6

- Al Jazeera Net | Jerusalem (@Aljazeeraquds) February 15, 2024

During a lengthy session in court on the 11th of this month, the land owners filed a lawsuit against the two Israeli authorities, to invalidate their claim that ownership of the “Friday Market” land belongs to the occupying state, and to demand an urgent ban on bulldozing work on the land, but the court refused to issue the ban order.

The representative of one of the families that owns the land, Hamad Hamad, told Al Jazeera Net that they are awaiting the response of the occupation court to another request to prevent bulldozing, but they are not optimistic because of the rejection of the first request, and because of the “Israel Lands Authority” joining the two authorities in the last court and its support for them, and its claim that it has a card. Ownership that enables it to be registered for the benefit of the occupying state.

Hamad responds to the paper’s claim, saying that it contains data that contradicts the reality of the land, its area, and its details. He confirms that the families possess ownership papers for the land, but the authorities hastened the bulldozing work to impose a fait accompli before the month of Ramadan, taking advantage of the state of war and the support of the occupation police, in addition to claiming that these works can be removed and are not permanent.

Hamad adds that the land has not yet been completely confiscated, and there will be another court next April, and that the “Nature and Harley Authorities” have opened two cases against the land, one to prove ownership, and another to allow its confiscation “for the public benefit.”

The storming and demolition of the “Friday Market” is reminiscent of the incident of exhuming part of the Yusufiya Cemetery, in October 2021, which is adjacent to this land, and adjacent to the Unknown Soldier Monument, which was built in memory of the martyrs of the Jordanian army in the city in 1967.

The occupation's "Nature and Parks Authority" seeks, through its work in the land of the Yusufiya Cemetery and the Friday Market, to transform it into an Israeli national park, as a continuation of the "Biblical Gardens" project around the Jerusalem Wall, within the so-called "Holy Basin."

The importance of the Friday Market land comes from the fact that it is located on an area of ​​1,223 square meters, next to the northern corner of the Jerusalem Wall, and has been owned for a century by three Jerusalemite families: Hamad, Atallah, and Owais.

After its occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the occupation turned the land into a garbage dump, and in 2018 the “Nature and Jerusalem Development Authority” affiliated with the occupation tried to tamper with it, but in 2019 the families were able to extract a decision to prevent the works, and to turn it into a vital parking lot for Jerusalemites.

Source: Al Jazeera