Explained | Israel-Palestine conflict: What is Sheikh Jarrah?

Israel’s attempts to expel existing Palestinian residents from East Jerusalem has been seen as an attempt to gain a stronger foothold in the city

The neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah has become the centrepiece of belligerent fighting between Israel and Palestine this week as Palestinians rallied around its residents to resist the Israeli settlers encroaching on East Jerusalem.

Jews refer to the neighbourhood, about a mile outside the old city, as “Shimon Hatzadik” or “Simeon the Just,” a Jewish High Priest whose tomb is visited by Jewish pilgrims. Palestinians claim the area is the burial ground of Sheikh Jarrah, a physician to Saladin, an Islamic military leader who fought against Crusaders in the 12th century.

Following Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, settler groups have launched legal bids to take over the area, staking a claim to the land as Jewish property lost in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

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When Israel regained control of Jerusalem after the war, it passed a law allowing Jewish families to reclaim their property in the city that they had lost to Jordanian or British authorities prior to 1967 if they could furnish proof of ownership. Palestinians say this law is discriminatory in practice and provides them no recourse to challenge Jewish claims.

In 1982, Jewish settlers sued the Palestinian families who lived in Sheikh Jarrah and called for their eviction, saying they were squatters on the property.

The Magistrate Court determined that the Palestinian families were unable to prove their ownership of the property, but would be able to continue living on the property as long as they paid rent and maintained the property.

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Beginning in 1993, Jewish trusts began proceedings against the residents based on their non-payment of rent and of illegal changes to the property.

The legal suits saw 43 Palestinians forced out of the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in 2002 and more followed in 2008 and 2017, with Israeli settlers taking over their homes. The most recent case, due to be heard in the Supreme Court, seeks to remove four more families from the contested neighbourhood.

Palestinians view Israeli efforts to evict the residents as a larger ploy to take control of East Jerusalem and its prized Old City, which is considered an extremely holy site by both sides. Protests against their eviction went on for days, which gave way to serious violence and aerial warfare between the two factions.

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