Palestinian Christians and their supporters are urging Pope Francis and the World Council of Churches to intervene in more than a dozen evictions in Jerusalem “scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 2, which happens to coincide with the Greek Orthodox celebration of Easter,” according to a letter written by Kairos Palestine in March.
Around 16 families and a total of 195 Palestinians, including 70 children, are slated to be removed from their homes in two occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. The impending displacement comes after a district court upheld appeals from two settler organizations who claim deeds to the properties. The Palestinian families have resided in the homes for decades. Most moved into their houses in the early years after Israel’s founding in 1948, a war that left them refugees in what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe.”
Kairos, a Palestinian Christian ecumenical movement, called on the Pope to stop the displacement after an earlier joint appeal was sent to the United Nations calling on the special rapporteur to intervene in the “imminent risk of forced displacement.” Another petition, a global drive launched last week with around 20,000 signers and addressed to the Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, demands “an end to illegal evictions of Palestinians and demolitions of their homes.”
In some instances, the Palestinians at risk of losing their homes were unaware legal proceedings against them began years ago. The joint appeal describes the case of Nitham Rushdi Abu Rammouz, “who found out by chance” that he was months away from being removed from his house.
Abu Rammouz explained: “On 3 January 2021, I went to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court to recover the value of a financial bail that I had previously paid regarding the decision to expel me from the Old City in Jerusalem.” There, a court official told him an eviction order was issued in absentia back in 2016. “It should be noted that during this period,” Abu Rammouz said, “I have not received any judicial notice on the eviction order, and I was not summoned to the Court.”
The law that allows forced displacements, the Legal and Administrative Matters Law, dates back to 1970. It gives Jewish Israelis the ability to reclaim properties owned prior to 1948 in East Jerusalem, and since 1967 has been recognized by the international community as part of the occupied Palestinian territory. Palestinians whose property was expropriated by the state are not afforded the same right under the law. This measure is the basis for the current lawsuits brought by the two settler organizations, Nahalat Shimon and Ateret Cohanim.
The first eviction orders were carried out in the mid-2000s. The United Nations estimates a total of around 877 people, including 391 children, are at risk of being evicted under similar circumstances.
As of a few months ago, most of the at-risk Palestinians exhausted the appeals process, often after a decade of costly hearings. The court’s final rulings in these cases favor the settler groups.
Michael Lynk, a UN Special Rapporteur described the strategic importance of the location of the homes in a January statement calling for a reversal of the displacement orders.
“These evictions are extremely alarming, and appear to be part of a broader pattern of forcing Jerusalemite Palestinian families from their homes to clear the way for more illegal Israeli settlements,” he said. “Time is running short for these orders to be reversed.”
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Briefly:
This article brings to mind April 25/48, when the Zionist offensive against Jaffa began with a massive indiscriminate mortar bombardment throughout the city launched by the Irgunists from the centre of Tel Aviv & the nearby Jewish settlement of Bat Yam.
For nearly 4 days, mortar shells exploded all over Jaffa’s commercial & residential districts. Civilians were overcome with fear & hysteria & thousands desperately wanted to flee. As Sir Henry Gurney, the British Chief Secretary of the Palestine government wrote in his diary: ‘The Irgun mortar attack was indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets & was designed to create panic among the population.’ (Michael Palumbo, The Palestinian Catastrophe, p. 89)
With Jaffa cut off from the rest of Palestine by advancing Jewish forces who controlled the Jerusalem highway, civilians could only escape the mortar barrages by sea. Shell-shocked & panic stricken, thousands jammed the port looking for any craft that could take them to Gaza or Lebanon. Many were cold-bloodedly murdered by Irgun snipers.
Scores of those who managed to get on the overcrowded boats, yachts, & other vessels, fell overboard & drowned. Iris Shammout, then 12 years old, “‘… bullets went through the bodies of people standing by the seashore…. Women & children were weeping & screaming’ as they filed into small boats in an effort to reach a Greek steamship they hoped would take them to safety. Many drowned because the tiny fishing vessels could not hold them. Babies fell overboard & mothers had to choose which ones to save. The Shammouts were luckier than most since all members of the family were able to get aboard the Greek vessel which eventually reached Beirut. But many of those who attempted to sail to Gaza or Beirut in small boats were lost at sea. Their bodies were washed up along the coast of Palestine.” (ibid)
On April 25, the Irgun also attacked Manshiyya, the Jaffa neighbourhood that extended into Tel Aviv. During the morning of April 27 the Haganah and the Irgunists again attacked Manshiyya with explosives & barrel bombs. They blew up row upon row of dwellings & forced Arab civilians to run for their lives to the sea. By the morning of the 28th the Irgun reached the sea & Manshiyya was cut off from the rest of Jaffa..(cont’d)
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After occupying Manshiyya, the Irgun ransacked & plundered Arab homes & businesses. Zionist historian, Jon Kimche: ‘Everything that was moveable was carried off from Jaffa – furniture, carpets, pictures, crockery, pottery, Jewelry & cutlery. The occupied part of Jaffa [Manshiyya] was stripped…what could not be taken away was smashed. Windows, pianos, fittings & lamps went in an orgy of destruction.’ (“Deir Yassin and Jaffa, April, 1948,” Seven Fallen Pillars: the Middle East 1915-1950)
Panic strickent, thousands of Jaffa’s citizens fled. A sea of refugees fled in vehicles heading for Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron, & Jordan. By April 30, over 80% of Jaffa’s population had left.
The British commander at Jaffa, General Sir Horatius Murray: “I saw a scene I never thought to see in my life. It was the sight of the whole population of Jaffa pouring out on to the road carrying in their hands whatever they could pick up. They headed south as fast as their legs could carry them. A case of sheer terror…” (Palumbo, p. 87)
On May 10, the Haganah entered Jaffa. to quote British Commander, General Murray, ‘It was as if a pied piper had been there… Gas stoves were still burning in the houses, shops were full of goods, & the houses had obviously been left in a great hurry…a city of the dead.’ (Palumbo, p. 88) Zionist troops were everywhere looting & pillaging while their officers looked the other way & many shared in the spoils.
Jaffa’s Christian churches were desecrated & looted. Father Deleque, a Catholic priest: ‘Jewish soldiers broke down the doors of my church & robbed many precious & sacred objects. Then they threw the statues of Christ down into a nearby garden.’ They laughed at the priest & ignored his protests. The cleric complained that Jewish leaders gave reassurances about respect of religious buildings ‘but their deeds do not correspond to their words.’” (ibid, p. 91) . They also plundered The Barclay Bank, the Ottoman Bank, the Arab Bank, the Islamic Bank, the Italian Bank & the German Bank.
“By the time Israel declared independence on May 14th 1948…Jews had chased Jaffa’s Arabs out of the city…Much of the Arab medina was bulldozed & grassed over…[W]alking through Jaffa today you would never know it had once been Palestine’s Arab economic and cultural center. …Jaffa was eradicated like Troy.” (The Economist, Feb. 7/2018)
A reminder from Stuart Littlewood.
https://www.redressonline.com/2021/04/lest-we-forget-israels-armed-aggression-against-the-christian-church/
This is the way that Israel,s Jewish invaders in Palestine send their Easter Greeting to non Jews.
Where are you Yonah Fredman .Perhaps you are on an Easter Antisemite Hunt.