The Al Kurd Family

On July 16, 2008, the Israeli Supreme Court issued an order to evict the Al Kurd family from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. This neighborhood is the site of the grave of Shimon Ha Tzaddik, Simon the Righteous.

The Al Kurd's house is part of a housing project the Jordanian government built with the United Nations Refugee and Welfare Association (UNRWA) to house 28 Palestinian refugee families who fled their homes in 1948. Before 1948, Fawzieh Al Kurd, the mother of the family, had a home in West Jerusalem. Her husband, Mohammed, had a home in Jaffa. The Al Kurd family moved into their home in Sheikh Jarra in 1956. It was agreed that ownership of the house would be transferred to the family within 3 years in exchange for their refugee status. In 1959, the home was registered in their name.

Shortly after the six day war in 1967, two groups of Jewish settlers known as the Oriental Jews Association and the Knesset Yisrael Association were successful in falsely claiming ownership of the land where these 28 houses stood. In 1972 these groups managed to register the land in their names with the Israeli land registrar.

In 1982, the two settler groups filed suits against the 28 Palestinian families, claiming their property rights. The families appointed a lawyer by the name of Tosya Cohen to defend their case. Cohen reached an agreement with the settlers in which he recognized the settlers¹ ownership of the land in return for granting the families the status of protected residents. As such, the families would have to pay rent to the owners.

The families refused to accept this agreement, fired Tosya Cohen and refused to pay the rent. They did however propose to put the rent in an escrow fund until the case was settled That proposal was rejected. Because they refused to pay the rent to the settlers' organizations, eviction orders were issued to a number of the families including the Al Kurd family.

The families hired another lawyer and upon further investigations it became clear that the settlers' associations did not own the land. The families' present lawyer, Mr. Houssni Abu Hussein petitioned the land registration department to revoke the settlers' registration of the land in 1972 and to issue an order to restate the rightful owner of the land.

In 2006, the land registration department agreed to the first demand and revoked the ownership of the settlers' association. They refused, however, to issue an order to conduct a rezoning of the area which was necessary in order to declare the rightful ownership.

The families appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to conduct the rezoning of the area and to annul all documents related to settlers¹ rights.

Meanwhile the two settlers associations had sold their claim to the property to an investment company by the name of Nahlat Shemoun. In Feb 2008, the company submitted a project to the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem in which the company proposed to demolish the 28 homes and build 200 settlement houses and a commercial center This project would link Hebrew University to West Jerusalem.

In 2001, a group of settlers broke into half of the Al Kurd family house ­ the half they had built for their son. Although the Israeli Supreme court issued an order to evict the settlers, they are still living there.

A week and a half ago, the Al Kurd Family was evicted from their home. We met with the mother, Fawzieh Al Kurd in a solidarity tent that had been set up on land just below her home. This is her story as translated by her friend, Amal Nashishibe.

"Last Sunday morning, at 3:30 in the morning, I heard strong knocking on the door. My husband (who is sick) had just woken up to use the bathroom and I didn¹t know what to do. I was trying to help him. The door was forced open. My husband fell to the floor. I was taken by 3 women soldiers. In the house there were at least 50 soldiers. I was in my nightgown and slippers. I was grabbed by the 3 soldiers. They took me to the upper street and they left me. My hands were handcuffed. The whole area was cordoned off.

All around the neighborhood there were soldiers. I was left on the street and no one could get to me. The soldiers were guarding me and they were making happy phone calls. My husband was carried out of the house by the soldiers and left in the neighbors' courtyard. The men were not allowed to come out of their houses to help ­ only women were allowed to come out. I was screaming. I did not see, but my neighbors tell me that people who looked like settlers were taking the furniture out of the house. Everything was dumped out of the pantry. Our furniture was taken to the depot and now we have to pay rent for it there.

The settlers cleaned the house and they started to go in. This was our house since 1956 and this is how it is in Israel. They come take your house. Now I don¹t have an address. I don¹t have a home. There is no recourse ­ no justice. I must take the case to an international court. There is no justice in Israel."

As of this posting, no one is living in the part of the house from which Fawzieh and Mohammed Al Kurd were evicted. The other 27 families in the neighborhood live in fear that they too will lose their homes.