“Ateret Cohanim” hand Sarhan family judicial orders to seize three houses
The settlement organization “Ateret Cohanim” handed on Sunday judicial orders to Sarhan family to seize their land in the neighborhood of Batn Al-Hawa in Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque; note that three houses are established on the land.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center was informed that Sarhan families have 30 days to respond to the settlers’ claims who claim that Jews from Yemen owned the land before 1948.
Zuheir Rajabi, head of Batn Al-Hawa committee, explained to the center that the houses are owned by Ali Sarhan and his son Mohammad (building of two floors) and Mohammad Maher Sarhan and mentioned that each apartment is 80 square meters where 10 individuals reside.
Rajabi added that Sarhan families have been living in the land for more than 80 years.
He also pointed out that Sarhan families received the judicial orders from the settlers only days after handing the family of Abu Nab eviction notices which shows the pursuit of "Ateret Cohanim" and its hard work to take control of the neighborhood’s properties and the displacement of its population.
The Information Center explained that the houses of Sarhan family fall within the plan of “Ateret Cohanim” to seize 5200 square meters from the neighborhood of “Middle Neighborhood” in the area of Batn Al-Hawa which was revealed last May; settlers claim that Jews of Yemen owned the land since 1881. The total area is divided into six pieces of land (numbers: 73, 75, 88, 95, 96 and 97) and the settlement organization claim that the Israeli Supreme Court acknowledged ownership of the settlers from Yemen to the land of “Batn Al-Hawa”.
The center explained that 30-35 residential buildings are established on the land where 80 families consisting of 300 individuals live. All of the residents have been living in the neighborhood for dozens of years after buying the land from the previous owners using official documents.
The center also mentioned that settlers’ attempted to seize land in Batn Al-Hawa started 8 years ago using several ways and many families were already handed eviction notices where most of them managed to protect their property until this day and the settlement organization was able to seize some of them.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center added that among the methods used by Ateret Cohanim to seize property in Batn Al-Hawa is to claim that the residents changed the building or added to the already exiting property which makes them lose the “protected tenant” classification. The organization also attempts to seize property through claiming ownership of through buying them from some brokers or people with no standards.
The center pointed out that there are 7 settlement outposts in the “Middle Neighborhood”. They are: “House of Honey”, “House of Yonatan”, houses of Abu Nab family that have been recently seized and that are only meters away from the two buildings leaked to the settlers at the end of last year.
