In what Palestinians are calling a dangerous Israeli precedent, the Israeli Supreme Court gave four families facing eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem until Nov. 2 to respond to a settlement agreement with the settlement association on the ownership of the land where their houses are built.

The court’s offer, which it said is non-binding, came before deciding on the case regarding the eviction of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Under the proposed compromise, the Palestinian families in the neighborhood shall be protected tenants, not the owners of the land, which recognizes the ownership of the settlement association Nahalat Shimon to the land, without prejudice to the families' demands for ownership of the land in the future final settlement.

The settlement requires Palestinian families to pay annual rental fees to the settlement association from Jan. 1, 2020. Until a final settlement on the issue is reached, the association will be considered the owner of the lands on which the Palestinian families’ houses are built in Sheikh Jarrah, while Palestinian families are considered “protected tenants” and are subject to the Tenant Protection Law for a period of up to 15 years from the moment the settlement is signed or until the final settlement procedures are completed.

In its deliberations Aug. 2, the Supreme Court had ended the decision to displace families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, without issuing a final decision on the case.