Silwan- The Magistrate Court issues a decision to evict two families from their property in Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood
The Israeli Magistrate Court issued a decision to evacuate two families from the neighborhood of Batn Al-Hawa in Silwan, in favor of the "Ateret Cohanim" settlement association, under the pretext of "ownership of the land for the Jews of Yemen since 1881."
Wadi Hilweh Information Center/ Silwan and the Batn al-Hawa Neighborhood Committee stated in a joint statement that the Magistrate Court issued a decision to vacate the properties of Jawad Abu Nab and Salem Ghaith, for the benefit of the settlers, and gave the two families until the beginning of next March to implement the decision.
They added that the Ghaith property consists of two floors and 10 people live in it, while the Abu Nab property consists of one apartment, and its surroundings have been completely controlled during the past years and part of it has been turned into a synagogue.
They explained that 7 families in Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood are now threatened with expulsion from their homes by decisions of the occupation courts.
Since September 2015, Ateret Cohanim Association began delivering judicial notifications to the neighborhood's residents, claiming the land on which their homes are built, after the association obtained in 2001 the right to manage the property of the Jewish association that claims to own the land.To this date, more than 87 families in the neighborhood have received legal notices, and all families are locked in a struggle in the occupation courts to protect their properties in which they have lived for decades.
The statement added that the properties of Abu Nab and Ghaith fall within the “Ateret Cohanim” scheme, to control 5200 square meters of Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan, under the pretext of its ownership for Jews from Yemen since 1881, and the “Ateret Cohanim” association claims that the Israeli Supreme Court has approved ownership of the Jews from Yemen to the land of Batn Al-Hawa.
