Palestinian Family Fights Settlers

Jonathan Cook

Foreign Correspondent, The National Newspaper

Listen to an Introduction from Citizen Paul

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Jerusalem – It must be the smallest Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories: just half a house.

But Palestinian officials and Israeli human rights groups are concerned that it represents the first stage of a plan to eradicate the historical neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, cutting off one of the main routes by which Palestinians reach the Old City and its holy sites. 

The home of Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd has been split in two since 1999 when Israeli courts evicted their grown-up son Raed from a wing of the property.
The elderly couple has been trying to regain possession, but was stymied last week when an Israeli high court backed the petition of a group of settlers and ordered the immediate eviction of the Khurds. The decision paves the way for the takeover of 26 multi-story houses in the neighborhood, threatening to make some 500 Palestinians homeless. 

The verdict has been denounced by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and in the past few days the Khurds have been visited by foreign diplomats, including from the United States. In a letter to consulates in Jerusalem, including the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, Rafiq Husseini, Mr. Abbas’s aide, warned that the takeover of the Khurds’ home was part of a wider drive to change the geography of Jerusalem by forcing out Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli settlers. Such a development would deal a death blow to already-strained peace negotiations, he wrote. 

Today there are 250,000 Israeli Jews living illegally in East Jerusalem, and the Israeli government has announced that thousands more apartments are to be built – despite promises to the US government to freeze settlement growth. 

The Khurds say they have faced constant pressure since settlers moved in next door. “At first we were offered a lot of money to leave,” said Mrs. Khurd, 62. ”When we refused, the settlers started making our lives a hell. The family next door changes every few months to make it difficult for us to start legal proceedings. 

“Armed Israeli guards have been posted on the path to our house and there is a network of surveillance cameras to watch our every move. Armed settlers have broken into the house, pointing their guns at us.”

Read Jonathan’s book, “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations.” It tells it all!

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