Ayoub Shamasneh, 82, his 78-year-old wife, Fatima, their son, daughter-in-law, and six grandchildren are facing possible eviction from their home in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

In 2009, the family of 10 was informed by the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property that the house Ayoub had resided in for decades historically belonged to Jewish owners, and the descendants of these owners wanted the property back.

The Absentee Property Law, regarded by Palestinians as a means for Israel to consolidate more territory, states that the property of Palestinians who fled to “enemy states” during the 1948 ethnic cleansing campaign qualifies to become confiscated property, under the protection of an Israeli custodian. A 1970 Israeli law on Legal and Administrative Matters delineates that a person who can prove ownership of property extending to pre-1948 has the right to take their claim to Israeli court to “re-appropriate” their home, or have US-funded Israeli organizations such as the Israeli Land Fund or the Nachlat Shimon Corp. do so on their behalf, usually through dubious measures.

The law, however, is restricted to Jewish people, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still hold the land deeds and official documentation to the villages and towns they were forcibly displaced from, thus highlighting the intention of the Israeli government to strengthen the premise of a Jewish state.