Land Research Center

For more than thirty years, the Salem family in Sheikh Jarrah has been in danger of displacement and deportation from their home, due to the occupation municipality, which unjustly claims the ownership of the land and the house where the family has inhabited for more than 70 years. These years are history in itself that bears witness to the family's authenticity and its historical and natural right to exist in that exclusive Palestinian spot.

The battle began in the eighties of the twentieth century, when the family received orders from the municipality to vacate the existing house on the western edge of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood known as (Ard al-Naqa’), about 1 km north of the Jerusalem Old City walls. In 1987, the first time the municipality occupation forced had notified The family to vacate the house, which resulted in the husband of Mrs. Fatima Salem having a heart attack, which resulted in his death in the following years, and it is known that the eviction order was frozen at that time.

The municipality notified the family more and more times of the unjust decision of deporting them, including in 2012, when settlers returned to the neighborhood and threatened Salem’s family and told them that the house and the plot of land in front of it must be vacated, in an attempt to implement decisions taken in 1987, but the court also froze the case in 2012. Settler groups returned in 2015 again to threaten the family forcing them that they must leave immediately, and following the family’s objection to these unjust decisions, the court again froze the eviction orders. Later, in December of 2021, orders were issued by the municipality and the occupation court, forcing the family to vacate the house and the plot of land within 3 months of the court’s decision. As a result, groups of settlers stormed the area on a daily basis, set up roadblocks, and a tenet for Knesset Member Itamar Ben Gvir, accompanied by a member of the Jerusalem municipality, Arieh King, and a number of leaders of settler groups in Jerusalem on the pretext that the land belongs to the extremist settler Yonatan Yosef, the grandson of the extremist Zionist rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

The settler groups, led by Ben Gvir, tried to provoke the people of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and all the solidarity activists who rushed to rescue Salem family. Those settler groups transferred control of the land and set up an office for the extremist bin Ghafir, and they attacked the family members, and tightened the movements of the family, with the help of the occupation army and police. They beat Mrs. Fatima Salem, arrested her son Khalil and locked him in the house for five days, in addition to a guarantee at a cost of 5,000 shekels, and the erection of barriers in the area so that the solidarity activists would not reach it. The family was also prevented from using the 150 square meter plot in front of the house. Mr. Ibrahim Salem stated, “Our children live in a state of great anxiety and fear, my daughter is not over six years old, she refuses to go to school for fear of settlers' attacks". On the other hand, the occupation forces used tear gas, sound and pepper gas to disperse the crowds of solidarity in the neighborhood who gathered in the place day and night and stood in the face of the occupation, whether by praying or chanting and supporting the family.

Following the events in January and February in the place, including solidarity and insistence on the part of the family not to leave. The court decided to freeze the decision indefinitely. Likewise, the family was forced to pay 25,000 shekels, about 8,000 US dollars, to confirm the decision, but the family is still under threat of displacement at any moment.

It is noteworthy that the Salem family owns about half a dunum of land in this area, and also owns a two-story house within the land, with an area of about one hundred and twenty square meters each store, It is now inhabited by 15 people, The owner Fatima Salem and her three sons Ibrahim, Ayoub and Khalil and their families, including their three wives and children. They share the house, trying to shelter from the high prices, and also not giving up on the house that sheltered them for many years, bearing with this the lack of space and the threats of settlers and the municipality. On the one hand, they have been living in the house for more than seven decades, paying the rent to the Jordanian side, and it is also registered in the Jordanian records that plot of land 47-48 is in the name of the family.

On the other hand, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is located 1 km to the north of the walls of the old city of Jerusalem, it contains old houses belonging to Jerusalemite families, as well as new ones. Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood has long been subjected to organized attempts of Judaization by the occupation municipality, the Interior Ministry, and the settlers. A number of homes have been demolished and their people displaced, and many other homes have been seized, and there are many families in the neighborhood who live under the threat of dispersal and the loss of their history in the place such as the Salhia family, whose house was demolished and they have been displaced, as well as the danger threatening the families of the Kurds, al-Qasim, al-Jaouni, and Iskafi in the east part of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.