The Magistrate court orders to stop the renovation works in the cave of Al-Zeer and the “Antiquities” requests evacuating him from the land
The Israeli Magistrate court Judge ordered last Monday Khaled Al-Zeer to stop the renovation works he is doing in the cave he resides in until next May. Al-Zeer told Wadi Hilweh Information Center that the so-called “Israeli Antiquities” recently submitted a complaint against him stating that “Al-Zeer is changing the archaeological features of a cave in Silwan” and requested to evacuate him from the land on order to save the “archaeological features”. Last Monday, Al-Zeer said in the court session: “the land and the cave belong to our family. My grandfather was born there and we’ve been living for hundreds of years.” He also denied the claims of the “Antiquities Authority” regarding the presence of archaeological features and explained to the judge that he didn’t change the features of the cave and only did minor renovations inside the cave after rocks and dirt fell on his family and pointed out that he only tiled the floors and ceiling. Al-Zeer pointed added that he has been living in the cave with his family that consists of 7 individuals after the bulldozers of Nature and Parks Authority demolished his house last August, and after the last snow storm that hit the country he was forced to live alone in the cave since his family members moved to live with their grandfather. Al-Zeer said: “I tried everything in Jerusalem, and the legal organizations and parties to help me maintain my land and save it from the Israeli schemes that aim at confiscating my land and turning it into a street that connects the settlement outposts in Silwan, Al-Thori and Jabal Al-Mukabber but to no avail. He said: “the Palestinian Authority has to support and enhance the Jerusalemite resistance and not to leave Jerusalemites alone to face the racist occupation violations.”
