Sheikh Jarrah Palestinian residents take turns guarding their homes
Tensions have escalated in the east Jerusalem neighborhood.
Amid the Israeli authorities’ repeated attempts to evict the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem so they can demolish their homes and build settlement units, Jerusalemite families in the neighborhood have been taking turns guarding their homes around the clock, for fear of attacks by extremist settlers and the Israeli army.
But despite the locals’ efforts, Israeli police managed to evict Palestinian families from a disputed property in the neighborhood Jan. 19.
Sheikh Jarrah, where tensions between Palestinians and Israeli peaked last year, made the headlines again in recent weeks, after the residents of the neighborhood unanimously rejected on Nov. 2, 2021, a compromise deal proposed by the Israeli Supreme Court, to consider the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to be “protected tenants” at the settlement association “Nahalat Shimon.” The residents considered the deal to be the gradual confiscation of the homes and lands of the neighborhood.
On Oct. 4, 2021, the Israeli Supreme Court offered families in the neighborhood a proposal to stay as tenants for 15 years, during which the Palestinian families who reside in their homes will pay the rent to the Nahalat Shimon association, which claims ownership of the land on which the neighborhood's houses are built.
