Expelled for the Second Time from Jerusalem

by Charles Lenchner · 2008-12-23 05:16:00 UTC
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Gidon Levy of Haaretz explains the situation of families evicted from homes in East Jerusalem. The land these houses sit on was originally owned by a Jewish organization, and they are exercising their right to reclaim the property, abandoned in 1948 with the Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem.

1956 the Jordanian government and the UN Relief and Works Agency built these 28 homes of refuge in Sheikh Jarrah for the families of the new refugees, in exchange for waiving their refugee cards.

The problem is, the Israeli court system thinks it's reasonable to rule on favor of Jews with property claims, not Palestinians.

The right of return: The original owners of those houses, the Sephardic Community Committee, has this right forever. There is no judge in Jerusalem who can explain this double standard, this racist right of return for Jews only. Why is the Sephardic Community Committee allowed, and the committee of Palestinians not?

These are good questions. I don't think there is a way to return to the status quo ante from before 1948. I don't think all the Palestinian refugees can return to their original homes inside Israel. Many of those homes no longer exist, and the transformation of the people and the land force all of us to look for compromise solutions. If that compromise won't allow Palestinian refugees to remain on Jewish property in East Jerusalem, then it shouldn't allow Jews to remain on Palestinian property in West Jerusalem.

The only explanation I can think of is that the court is secretly sympathetic to the full implementation of the Palestinian Right of Return, and welcomes the future use of this ruling to force Israeli authorities to accept the future expulsion of Jewish families from Palestinian property.

Charles Lenchner
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