3 Sumrin families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan are living the constant nightmare of eviction from the home their have lived in all their life.

The Israeli court in occupied Jerusalem decided to evict Odeh, Dweik, and Shweiki families from their properties in Batn Al-Hawa, under the pretext of the Jews' ownership of the land on which the building is located.

The District Court rejected, yesterday, the appeal submitted by the Dweik family to evict them from their home, in favor of the Ateret Cohenim settlement, in addition to the eviction of the Odeh and Shweiki families, who applied to the Israeli Supreme Court to suspend the eviction decision, but the court rejected their request.

Severe Fears

The three Palestinian families raise severe fears that they will be expelled and forcibly displaced at any moment, due to the occupation’s decision to seize their properties.

In 2008, the Israeli municipality started pursuing the Dweik family, when it decided to demolish two floors of their house, under the pretext of building without a permit. After years, the Supreme Court rejected the municipality's decision, only to surprise the family with the court's report from the Ateret Cohenim Association demanding the land on which the property is located.

 Dweik family lives in their home after the family's grandfather bought the land in 1963. The house consists of five floors, and it is inhabited by five families, including about 25 people.

According to a joint statement issued by the Wadi Hilweh Information Center and the Batn al-Hawa Neighborhood Committee, the houses of Shweiki, Dweik and Odeh families are two buildings located within the Ateret Cohenim scheme, to control 5 dunams and 200 square meters of Batn al-Hawa, under the pretext of their ownership by Jews from Yemen since 1881.

The settler association claims that the High Israeli Court has approved the ownership of Batn al-Hawa lands by Jews from Yemen, and since September 2015, judicial notices have been handed over to families.

In early February, the Israeli reconciliation court issued a decision to evacuate the home from its residents, and submitted its appeal to the central court, which in turn rejected the appeal and approved the reconciliation decision.

Ethnic Cleansing

A member of the Silwan Land Defense Committee, Fakhri Abu Diab, told SAFA that Batn al-Hawa neighborhood, which has been threatened with demolition, has been subjected for many years to attacks by the occupation and its settlers, by evacuating its residents and seizing their homes.

Although the land on which the three Jerusalem homes are built in private Palestinian- Arab ownership neighborhood, and its residents possess all the documents and identification papers, the settler “Ateret Cohanim” association claims Jewish ownership of it and tries in various ways to seize it.

The threat of displacement has threatened about 80 Jerusalemite families in Batn al-Hawa neighborhood for years, which includes more than 700 people, knowing that most of them own land in the western part of Jerusalem, and are unable to get it back.

Under the Absentee Property law, Abu Diab clarifies that 32% of Silwan's lands and properties will be confiscated, in addition to 60% of the lands in the old city in order to eliminate the Palestinian presence in the holy city.

Israel is working on imposing racist laws that allow settlement associations to directly control the property of Jerusalemites.

The Sumrin families meanwhile are not quitting the battle to keep their home.