On the 26th of September, 2010, the Israeli High Court in occupied Jerusalem issued a verdict that revoked the ownership of Al Sa’adi family of its land and re-registering it in the names of Israeli colonists. The land is located in a Palestinian residential neighborhood known as Kubbaniyyat Umm Haroun where Palestinian refugees have been residing since their Nakba in 1948 in accordance with a rental agreement with the Guardian of Absentee Properties.
The Court ruled that the land belonged to Jewish colonial organizations in the aftermath of a case filed by them to take over the land. The Palestinian owners were represented by the lawyer Husni Abu Hussein who advocated on behalf of the Waqf of Mohammad and Ibrahim Abed Rabbo and Suleiman Darweish Hijazi (a house owner). In turn, the Israeli District Attorney represented the following in their capacity as “the true owners of the land”; Leya Offer, Dr. Irving Moskovitch, Deborah Potkinm Tamar Oghner in addition to the Jerusalem Municipality, Yetzhaq Mamo and the State of Israel. The Israeli party to the case managed to collect, fabricate and forge all papers and documents needed for the High Court to issue a decision in their favor.
The lawyer Abu Hussein filed an appeal against an earlier decision of the court issued on the 13th of September, 2010. As such, the High Court met on the 26th of September, 2010, and decided to reject the appeal and that the ownership of the land is Jewish.
In terms of the residents of the said area, the lawyer Abu Hussein has indicated the following to the Land Research Center (LRC)’s field researcher:
The decision concerns the property, but not the tenant as they are protected in accordance with the Rental Laws. Yet, nothing is excluded from the agenda of the occupation especially given the fact that the decision of the High Court is purely political with demographic ramifications. Also, the colonial interests in the area is well known and, as such, the Palestinians of Sheikh Jarrah are living under the threat of being expelled and evicted from their homes and to be replaced by Israeli colonists in their stead.
Photo 1: A Palestinian women facing the threat of expulsion standing in
front of her house in Kubbaniyyat Umm Haroun.
front of her house in Kubbaniyyat Umm Haroun.
Photo 2: A Palestinian Jerusalemite family in front of its house in
Kubbaniyyat Umm Haroun neighborhood in Sheikh Jarrah.
Kubbaniyyat Umm Haroun neighborhood in Sheikh Jarrah.
The Case of Kubbaniyyat Umm Haroun:
The neighborhood is located on an area of 8 dunums in the heart of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. The land belongs to the brothers Mohammad and Ibraheem the sons of Ma’o Al Zughayyer Al Sa’adi as they have a Waqf (Trust) bill dated in the year 1229 Hijri (1808). The heirs of Mr. Suleiman Darweish Hijazi became co-owners of the land when they bought part of it in the year 1969. In the year 1310 Hijri (1889). the late Trust Director, Mr. Abed Rabbo Khalil Ibrahim officially rented the land to a Palestinian Jew called “Yousef Bin Rahameim Mayohas” in return for an annual rent for a period of 90 years that ends in the year 1400 Hijri (1979).
In the rental agreement it was specified that the owner of the land is the Trust while Yousef was to benefit from the land as long as he paid the yearly fees. Yousef, in turn, divided the 8-dunum land into 68 equal parts (117.5 m2 each) and rented them out to other Jews who established houses on them and registered them in the Turkish Tabo as renting the land (i.e. not the owners). The tenant continued to pay their yearly rent until the year 1947 as per the receipts present at the Waqf Department.
In the year 1947 skirmishes took place between Arabs and Jews in the said area especially given the fact that it is located on the front line. At the end of the 1948 War, Jews living in the Jordanian side of the Green Line moved into the side of the Green Line on which the State of Israeli was created. The Jordanian Army entered the remains of Historical Palestine and unified the two banks of the Jordan River in 1950.
In order to deal with Jewish properties, Jordan established a department called “Guardian of Enemy Properties”. The Department listed all properties owned andor managed ented by o Jews which included Kubbaniyyat Umm Haroun. Some of the Palestinian who fled their original houses inside the Green Line in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba found refuge in the houses of the Kubbaniyya. They have renovated the houses and rented them from the Guardian.
In the year 1979, the long-term rental agreement with Yousef has ended which prompted the late Mr. Suleiman Hijazi and the new director of the Trust, Mr. Yehya Zakariya to take steps to reclaim the land. However, the Israeli High Court chose to ignore all of the legally-biding Turkish, British and Jordanian official papers and reverted the ownership of the lands to colonial organizations. As such, the Israeli courts in its highest forms have become a mere tool in the Israeli occuaptions’ hands that work to make Jerusalem purely Jewish.
The decision of the High Court rejecting the Appeal.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
The Land Research Center
LRC
