Israel postpones expulsion of Palestinian family from Silwan

Israel's High Court has temporarily postponed the expulsion of a Palestinian family from their home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan.

A petition by the Duweik family to stop their expulsion was  accepted and postponed until their next hearing, according to Haaretz.

The ruling won by a 2-1 majority, with justices Daphne Barak-Erez and Isaac Amit voting in favour of the petition and Judge David Mintz voting against.

The Duweik family legally attained their property in 1965 after they purchased it from its previous Palestinian owners.

Settlement organisations, especially Ateret Cohanim, which is one of the groups spearheading illegal Israeli settlement expansion in occupied East Jerusalem, have tried to expel the family by claiming that Yemenite Jewish families had owned the land until 1938.

Israel's Absentee's property law allows the state to confiscate Palestinian property if the owner is out of the country, but Jewish Israelis are able to claim property that had Jewish owners any time before 1948.

Settler organisations in Silwan work in cooperation with Israeli government bodies, like the Absentees' Property Custodian, the General Custodian and the Ministry of Finance.

However, Israeli courts have dismissed documents dating to Ottoman times presented by Palestinian families showing ownership of homes in Batn Al-Hawa, which is also part of East Jerusalem’s Silwan district.

According to the Palestinian human rights organisation, Al-Haq, Israeli settler groups "receive backing and protection from the Israeli government" and the collusion between two "has been documented, even if it is still difficult to estimate its extent." 

Some 68 Palestinian families are threatened with expulsion from Silwan. Human rights groups' records show an increase of 39% in the number of new construction sites designated for Jews in Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem.