Pictures and details- Elad settlement association seize the property of Siam family…25 years in the occupation’s courts
On Wednesday, the Israeli occupation forces evacuated Abu Zweir / Siam family from their property in Wadi Hilweh neighborhood of Silwan in favor of Elad settlement association after a 25-year conflict in the Israeli occupation’s courts.
The Israeli Supreme Court rejected on Monday a petition filed by Siam family to freeze and postpone the eviction order issued by the District Court last month.
The seized property consists of a house in which Mrs. Elham Siam and her four children live, as well as a land of about half a dunum and a storeroom.
The occupation authorities executed the eviction order prior to a hearing in the Supreme Court to consider the "ownership of the land." The documents presented to court confirm that the land on which the house is built belongs to the late Jamil Siam and not to the late Zweir.
How did they storm the house??
Jawad Siam, director of Wadi Hilweh Information Center and one of the heirs, explained that the intrusion was carried out in a twisted manner, in an effort to deceive the family and distract them. At 9:00 am, a settler wearing civilian clothes knocked on the door of the family's house. When we opened the door, he said in Hebrew “I am a municipal specialist and there is an elderly lady whose house does not have water and we want to help her."
Siam added: “In a few minutes and as the settler talked with us, large forces of the special forces, police and intelligence personnel stormed the house of my brother Imad, using the stairs and reached the land and storeroom during which they assaulted the residents and the locals supporting the family, pushed them and arrested me."
Dividing the land and the roof and opening a back door
Majd Ghaith from Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that the settler workers emptied the contents of the property of Imad Siam after evacuating the residents and collected all the furniture on the roof of the house, while other teams of workers brought tin plates and immediately began to install fences and separators inside the family’s land. They also opened a back door to the land and demolished parts of the retaining wall that was attached to a storeroom, thereby completely controlling the property.
The property…partially sold and a struggle to preserve the rest!
About the property, Nihad Siam, one of the heirs, explained that his family has been fighting in courts for over 25 years to protect the property and to prove their ownership, and to refute the allegations of Elad settlement association. The property is 8 shares, 4 were sold by its owners, and two were seized under the category of "Custodian of Absentees Property". Two shares remain and are owned by the late Munira and her sister Fatima, which is all what’s left to the family to preserve.
Nihad Siam added that over the past few years, Elad settlement association has worked hard to seize the property in a number of ways. The first is through collusion between brokers and clients in taking the fingerprints of Abu Zweir on the document of waiver of three of her sons when she was on the deathbed. In 1999, Israeli courts rejected Elad’s claim, asserting that the property belongs to Abu Zweir’s eight children.
He added that Elad attempted to seize the property again by filing another lawsuit requesting its right to the property of the late Zweir claiming they had purchased three shares from the heirs in the United States headed by Mahmoud Daoud Khalil. The association also requested to classify the remaining shares under the “Custodian of Absentees Property” in 2001.
Nihad Siam said that after several hearings in the courts, it was revealed that Elad had already purchased the shares of four heirs, in addition to two shares under the “Custodian of Absentees Property” while the remaining two are still for the late Munira and her sister Fatima.
Siam added that his late mother, Munira Siam, and his brothers faced the Israeli courts and the bias towards the settlers and settlement associations and the prosecutions and fines imposed on them, and preventing them from any internal renovation in the house and land in order to protect the property which overlooks Al-Aqsa Mosque from the south.
Conditional release
The Israeli police released Jawad Siam, director of Wadi Hilweh Information Center, on condition of deportation from the village of Silwan, for 3 days.
Jawad was arrested on Wednesday morning during the evacuation of a property belonging to his family in Wadi Hilweh. He was charged with several counts: threatening the lives of "property traffickers" after naming them, arranging illegal gatherings and making dangerous contacts.
