Israel high court suspends Palestinians' evictions for now

Israel’s Supreme Court on March 1 ruled that a group of families slated for eviction from a flashpoint east Jerusalem neighbourhood can remain in their homes for the time being.

The ruling could work to ease tensions in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, which helped ignite the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza last year.

The court ruled that the families can stay in their homes for now until Israel carries out a land arrangement, a process that could take years or may not be carried out at all, according to Ir Amim, an advocacy group that was not involved in the court case. For the time being, the four families residing in the homes will be recognised as protected tenants.

Each will deposit a largely symbolic rent amounting to $62 a month to a trust, until the property’s ownership is settled.

Sami Arsheid, a lawyer representing the families’ case before the court, said the decision was “something huge” that ran counter to the previous 63 rulings by Israeli courts on the issue of Palestinian properties in Sheikh Jarrah.

He said the court agreed that there’s a strong claim of Palestinian ownership of the property and that his clients “feel some relief that they are not going to be evicted from their homes.”

Dozens of Palestinian families in east Jerusalem are at risk of eviction by Jewish settler organisations, and thousands face the threat of demolition because of discriminatory policies that make it extremely difficult for Palestinians to build new homes or expand existing ones.