Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah reject deal with settlement organization
Palestinians in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah are declining a deal that would leave them in their homes for 15 years on the condition that they pay token rent to an Israeli settler organization.
The struggle of Palestinian families in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to not legitimize a settler organization in their midst was emboldened on Nov. 2 when they rejected an Israeli court compromise deal.
The deal suggested by Israel's highest court would allow the four families in the neighborhood to stay in their homes for 15 years and pay a token rent under the guise of protected tenants. For the tenants, of course, the problem is that they will be paying a settler organization that has assumed without proof that they are the owners of the homes built in 1952 by the government of Jordan in agreement with a UN agency.
The long-running case has been a regular source of tension across the occupied territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Protests earlier this year over the case helped trigger an 11-day war between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza last May.
The Israeli court proposed the deal in October and gave the families until Nov. 2 to decide whether to accept.
