What is the story of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem?

Arab Weather - Sinan Khalaf - Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood , is one of the most important and important neighborhoods of Jerusalem, as the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is located on the eastern side of the Old City of Jerusalem, and the importance of Sheikh Jarrah lies in being the first Palestinian neighborhood outside the walls of Jerusalem.

The area of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is 808 dunums, and the neighborhood includes about 2,800 people, and it is divided into two parts, one of them is empty and includes restaurants, consulates and hotels, and another part suffers from poor infrastructure as a result of the deliberate negligence of the occupation authorities in an attempt to force its majority Palestinian population to emigrate.

Who is Sheikh Jarrah, who bears his name?

The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was named after Prince Hussam al-Din bin Sharaf al-Din Issa al-Jarahi, who is the doctor of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi. 800 years ago.

What is the story of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which brought the Palestinian issue and Jerusalem back to the fore?

The story of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood goes back to the year 1956, after the Nakba of Palestine in 1948 and the loss of hundreds of Palestinian families of their homes, about 28 families were forced to move to Sheikh Jarrah and start a new life after losing their homes.

And the 1948 war came in order for Jerusalem to be divided, as it was at that time under the rule of Jordan, so an agreement was concluded at that time with the Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Construction and the Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees "UNRWA", on the condition that the Jordanian government pledge to provide the neighborhood's area of land and give it a gift to the adult Palestinian families. They number 28 families, provided that the role of the UN Relief Agency is to build and construct 28 homes, in exchange for a symbolic sum of money that is paid periodically, so that all the houses are owned within years , but something happened that changed the present and the future.

When the lands of the Shakh Jarrah neighborhood were granted to the 28 Palestinian families, the area of one house was about 800 square meters, the house is built in an area not exceeding 200 meters and it is divided into two families and the rest of the area is planted and decorated. The Palestinians mastered the building and engineering of their homes, so they created houses with a special architecture that gave them the special architectural beauty, as well as the green spaces that covered the neighborhood and increased its splendor.

The 1967 war broke out and the rules of the game changed, so that the occupation forces were able to control the West Bank, including the city of Jerusalem, and the families who increased to 38 families remain without title to the land, which exposes them to displacement from it at any time, to begin a new phase of trying to prove their ownership.

In 1972, the Sephardic community, and the Knesset Committee of Israel, "Ashkenazi Jews", resorted to the courts over their ownership of land since 1885, and that Palestinian families owned the land by laying hands, but the judiciary was fair to Palestinian families at that time.

In 2008, the Occupation Court issued a decision to empower one of the settler families to one of the homes of the Sheikh al-Kurd family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood . This was followed by another decision in 2009 and the homes of the “Hanoun and Ghawi” families were evacuated. About 12 other Palestinian families suffer from the risk of displacement due to the presence of more Unjust cases that are considered within the occupation courts.