It’s not about real estate – its about the narrative

The four Arab families living in Jewish-owned homes in Sheikh Jarrah/Shimon HaTzadik are part of a political game that has been moved to the courts for a decision. But the “property” dispute is really a war between two different narratives about Jerusalem.

By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM

Left-wing activists protest the Sheikh Jarrah evictions, June 11, 2021 | File photo: Oren Ben Hakoon

If the Palestinians living in the Jewish homes in the Shimon HaTzadik/Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem weren’t facing political pressure, at least some of them might be willing to accept the generous compensation package judges from the High Court of Justice presented to them last week.

After two previous legal processes ended in rulings that they had to leave the homes, the High Court last week proposed that the Ja’uni, al-Kurd, Skafi and Abu Hasna families (who appealed the previous rulings) recognize that the compound belonged to Jews, in exchange for being awarded protected residency status in the Jewish area of Shimon HaTzadik that would apply to themselves, their children, and their grandchildren. Moreover, they would have to pay only a symbolic “rent” of 1,500 shekels ($465) per year.

The three justices who presided, Yitzhak Amit, Dafna Erez-Barak, and Noam Solberg, did everything they could to safely dismantle the land mine that had landed in their laps. The discussion of the case took place during riots and attacks on Jewish homes in Shimon HaTzadik, and the events that followed – rocket attacks on Israel, Operation Guardian of the Walls, and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab cities — and it appeared as if the judges were going out of their way to avoid making a decision that could force Arab families to be evicted from accommodations where they have lived for decades, even if they weren’t the owners.

But the four families who petitioned the High Court of Justice haven’t been acting solely on their own behalf for some time. They have become a leading symbol of the Palestinian narrative about the battle for Jerusalem, cultural heroes in the story that puts both sides back where they were in 1948. From this perspective, Sheikh Jarrah, like Palestine as a whole, is forever the property of the Muslim Waqf and must be liberated. But from the Jewish perspective, this is where the grave of High Priest Simeon the Just– which was legally purchased from Arab owners 145 years ago – lies, and the place from which Jews were expelled by bloody rioting before the state was founded.

Last week, the judges tried, in vain, to gloss over this aspect of the dispute, but found it difficult. The Palestinian side repeatedly rejected their proposed compromise.

Behind the scenes of the High Court’s show of mediation, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement are pressuring the Arab residents of the compound not to accept any compromise that includes recognizing the Jewish ownership of the 17 dunams (4.2 acres) surrounding the grave of Shimon HaTzadik. On the Jewish side, the Nahalat Shimon International company, which in 2007 purchased the land from the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesset Israel Committee (who bought it in 1876), is inclined to look favorably on the compromise and supposedly has good reason to do so. According to the judges’ proposal, the families’ “protected residency” status would last for three generations, but if and when the Jewish owners receive a building permit, they will apparently be able to evict the people living there, meaning the compromise won’t hold water.

To offer the Palestinians a way out of the corner into which they backed themselves, and let the families keep living in the compound for at least a few more years, last week Israeli diplomats in Washington enlisted their US counterparts to push the Palestinians to adopt the High Court judges’ compromise.

The Foreign Ministry took this step after the US State Department made it clear to Israel that the US opposed evicting the Arab families from the disputed compound, even though it is owned by Jews and courts have ruled to that effect, because the residents are families who have lived there for decades. Israel at first informed the US that the matter was solely in the hands of the court, but the Americans continued to press.

In response, Israel presented the High Court judges’ proposal for a compromise as the lesser evil and a fair offer that could calm the neighborhood. Israel also hinted that there was a good chance that the Jewish side in this so-called “real estate” dispute would accept the deal, and therefore pressure should be applied to the Palestinians by removing the threat from the PA and Hamas, allowing them to make a decision freely.

There’s not much chance this joint Israeli-American move will succeed, but for now it’s the only game in town, or more precisely, this small and volatile corner of Jerusalem that lies on the way to Mount Scopus.

Jordan is involved, as well. The Hashemite Kingdom sent the Palestinians in Jerusalem documents supposedly showing that prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, a process had begun to transfer ownership to the Arab residents, that the residents had been housed in the Jewish-owned homes by Jordan and UNRWA after the Jews fled from them in the 1948 War of Independence. The Jordanian documents were submitted to the High Court of Justice and it’s not clear whether or not they will affect the judges’ final decision. The people from Nahalat Shimon International say that the Jordanians’ claim is fictitious and there is no document that connects the petitioners to the property.

Either way, Israel and the US are trying to bring Jordan into the affair, hoping that Amman will pressure the Palestinians to accept the compromise. Meanwhile, the whole matter appears to be at an impasse, but the Biden administration isn’t giving up. Washington is very active in the Sheikh Jarrah dispute, trying to stop Jewish settlement there, just like it is trying to stop other Jewish settlement activity in Jerusalem. 

The US administration has informed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz that it opposes not only evicting the Arab families living in Shimon HaTzadik, but also the construction of another neighborhood on Har Homa, construction in E1 between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem, construction in Atarot, and the implementation of an already approved plan to build a new Jewish neighborhood on Givat Hamatos. President Joe Biden spoke with Bennett about Har Homa and mentioned the US objection to similar initiatives, which he said he saw as “establishing facts on the ground that could torpedo any future peace deal.” 

We don’t know how Bennett responded, but one thing is clear – just like under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel still isn’t building the final stage of the Har Homa neighborhood, or in Atarot, or in E1 or Givat Hamatos, and is not evacuating any more Arab families from Shimon HaTzadik, which is already home to 22 Jewish families.

But now, the diplomatic dispute has been transferred to the courtroom. In one recent discussion, Erez-Barak almost begged the representatives of the Arab families not to turn the legal discussion into a “history lesson.”

Justice Amit suggested the families adopt what he called an approach of “constructive diplomacy.”

“We will write,” he said, “That the petitioners declare that they are the protected residents and that the defendant [Nahalat Shimon] is the registered owner, and thus we will solve the problem. That will give us a few more good years. By that time, either peace will break out, or an agreement will be reached about the land,” he offered.

“People need to keep living there. Forget about declarations. We are looking for a practical solution,” he continued.

But thus far, the Palestinians are refusing. Last week, they were supposed to submit to the court a list of the names of the residents of the compound and their legal statuses. They might ask for another hearing about the compromise, and try to improve it. 

The Palestinians see the battle for the Sheikh Jarrah compound as not only about the specific properties, but against the continuity Israel wants to create between west Jerusalem and Mount Scopus, which was cut off from Israel for 19 years until it was liberated in 1967. That was when the Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus resumed operations.

This continuity, as well as the nearby grave of Shimon HaTzadik around which a small Jewish neighborhood was established that existed until the War of Independence – and the adjacent Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah – are hardly at the far edge of east Jerusalem. This is a populated area that straddles the seam line in the city, and are located near the national headquarters of the Israel Police, several hotels, a large Clalit Health Services community clinic, and 3,345 dunams (826 acres) of land that the government confiscated from local Jews and Arabs after the Six Day War.

For years, Israeli city planners and Jerusalem city officials saw this area as a vital part of the urban continuity that connected the western half of the city to Mount Scopus. This swathe includes Ramat Eshkol, Sanhedria, French Hill, and Maalot Dafna. Tens of thousands of Israelis currently live there. The Palestinians, on the other hand, who never stop talking about the eastern half of the city as their future capital, want to strike a blow to that continuity. The Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah have become part of these “war games,” and just like the Jews vow that “Shimon HaTzadik will not all again,” they swear that “Sheikh Jarrah will not fall again.”

Until 1929, Jews and Arabs living in the area enjoyed tolerably good relations. Then the 1929 riots broke out, and Muslims burst out of Damascus Gate and attacked the homes in the small Jewish neighborhoods across the street from it, not far from Shimon HaTzadik – in particular, the Nissan Beck home. They murdered 19 Jews, including the mother of then-infant Shmuel Tzefania, who was found next to his mother’s body. Years later, Tzefania would lead the renewed settlement in Shimon HaTzadik. He died a few years ago.

The Arabs tried to force the Jews out of Shimon HaTzadik itself, first in 1929 and again in the riots of 1936. Just before the state was established, they succeeded. The British forced the Jews to leave Shimon HaTzadik after Arab rioters murdered three residents. A month after that eviction, an Arab mob slaughtered a group of 78 doctors and nurses who were on their way to the besieged Mount Scopus hospital. The Hadassah Convoy massacre took place near the abandoned Jewish neighborhood, not far from the home of Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, who would become Hitler’s partner in the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people.

Unfortunately for the High Court judges, the discussions in their air-conditioned courtroom are not only legal. Even if the two historical narratives, one Jewish and one Palestinian, serve as set dressing – they are what makes this issue so volatile.

Hamas, incidentally, has already renewed its threats to launch a new wave of violence on Israel’s southern border and in Sheikh Jarrah if the justices do not rule in favor of the Palestinians. At the same time, the JNF-KKL is moving ahead with the registration of dozens of properties currently managed by the Israeli Custodian General as owned by Jews. Like the property in Shimon HaTzadik, they were transferred to the custodian general by the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property. Things certainly won’t be dull here in the next few months.