The Israeli legal system: No place for justice

No outcome from an Israeli court can ever be considered fair or legitimate.

The struggle to save the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah from ethnic cleansing by state-backed Israeli settler organisations continued this week in the Israeli Supreme Court. During the court hearing, the judges proposed, what they framed as a “compromise”: the Palestinian residents would be granted a form of protected tenancy, but would have to pay a small rent to Nahalat Shimon – the international settler organisation behind the aggressive ethnic cleansing campaign. This would mean formally relinquishing any claims of ownership over the homes and land in the neighbourhood. Unsurprisingly, the residents have not accepted the compromise. They will now have to return to the court in less than a week for what is expected to be the conclusion of the legal battle. While the media primarily focussed on popular protests on the streets and the accompanying international social media campaign in their coverage of the struggle to Save Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian residents of the neighbourhood have also been fighting against attempts to expel them from their homes in Israeli courts, for decades.