Nora Ghaith and husband Mustapha may be evicted by Jewish settlers during Eid al-Adha: Israeli court

An Israeli court ruled on Monday that the police may execute an eviction order against Nora Ghaith and her husband, Mustapha, anytime between 28 June and 13 July.

The ruling came after a settler group petitioned the court to specify new dates for the police to evict the elderly Palestinian couple. An eviction order that was set on 11 June was not carried out because police deemed the timing not suitable. 

"These are difficult times," Nora, 68, told The New Arab. "The occupation government is applying all sorts of pressures upon Palestinians in Jerusalem but our determination will not wane."

Nora nowadays rarely leaves her home for fear of settlers breaking in and taking over. 

Several Palestinian residents in Aqabat El-Khaldiya in the Old City face similar eviction proceedings against them, according to Ra'fat, Nora's son.

In the wake of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, settler groups - backed by the Israeli government - launched a relentless campaign to "reclaim" Jewish properties "lost" during the war. Many of these claims are false, Palestinian activists say.

"My parents have been under a lot of stress caused by Israel and harassment by the settlers. It's not just my family on the line. Many homes in the neighbourhood of Aqabat El-Khaldiya have been taken".

Under Israeli law, Jews can reclaim properties lost during the conflict, while Palestinians can't. 

Following lengthy legal battles first brought by Israel's custodian of absentee properties and later by Jewish settlers, an Israeli court in 2016 allowed only Nora and her husband, Mustapha, to live in their home, forcing Ra'fat and his sister to live elsewhere. 

The court ruling also specified that the elderly couple may continue to live in their home for a maximum period of ten years. However, two years later, the settlers sued again and extracted an eviction order claiming Nora had not lived at her home in the Old City. 

"Ultimately their plan is to establish a new Jewish quarter [in the old City]", Ra'fat added. 

The current Israeli government is arguably Israel's most far-right in decades. Since January, the ruling coalition has passed legislation upon legislation boosting settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 

Nora Ghaith's home is only two minutes from the Muslim holy site of the Haram al-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary, fiercely contested by Jewish ultranationalists. 

On Monday night, the Israeli police stormed the compound and ousted all Muslim worshipers practising I'tikaf or seclusion. In a "dangerous precedent", the police forced the entire Al-Awqaf staff out of the site. Al-Awqaf is the body that supervises the Al-Aqsa and is under the authority of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the custodian of Mulsim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem. 

"This constitutes a blatant aggression... by the occupation which proliferates hate, insecurity, and will drag the region and the world to a religious war". The Al-Awqaf said in a statement released on Tuesday. 

Earlier, the Israeli cabinet granted far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich exclusive responsibility for settlement planning in the occupied West Bank. It means settlement planning processes will no longer need approval from the political level, which until recently involved the prime minister and the minister of defence. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government came to power in January and has since approved more than 7,000 new housing units, most deep in the West Bank.

Last March, the Israeli Knesset passed legislation allowing Israelis to enter and stay in four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank evacuated in 2005 as part of the "Gaza disengagement plan", implemented during the tenure of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.