Lower courts had ruled that several homes in Sheikh Jarrah, known in Hebrew as Shimon HaTzadik, were owned by Jews before 1948. The planned evictions of the triggered widespread protests in the neighborhood and other parts of Jerusalem over the past few months.
Last week, The Jerusalem Post revealed that Prime Minister Naftali Bennet does not plan to evict the families even of the High Court makes it possible. Sources close to Bennet said that they did not expect the court to order the government to enforce any eviction order or to impose a deadline.
A statement issued by several Palestinian armed groups on Sunday called on the Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem to “ignite the flame of resistance under the feet of the Zionist occupiers.”
“The occupation’s aggression against our people in Jerusalem and Sheikh Jarrah is increasing,” the statement read. “In addition, the aggression against the families threatened with displacement continues. The crimes of the occupation have not stopped.”
Voicing “full solidarity” with the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, the terror groups said that they will defend them as they did during the “Sword of Jerusalem” battle, the name Hamas uses to describe its 11-day war with Israel last May.
“The resistance groups that defended the people of Jerusalem and the West Bank will not fail them,” the groups added. “We call on our people in the West Bank and Jerusalem to continue to ignite the flame of resistance at all points of contact with the Zionist occupier, and to ignite the occupied land under the feet of the Zionist usurpers.”
Mohammed Hamadeh, a spokesperson for Hamas, warned Israel against “playing with fire” regarding the possible eviction of the Sheikh Jarrah families.
“The Palestinian people, who refuse to give up and surrender, will continue to resist all attempts by the occupier [to evict the families],” Hamadeh said. “We are ready to respond to the aggression of the occupation. What the resistance groups did not allow in the past, they will not allow today or tomorrow. The occupation must learn the lesson and stop tampering with the Jerusalem neighborhoods.”
The Hamas official accused Israel of planning to “Judaize” Jerusalem and expel the Palestinians from the city.
Fatah activists in east Jerusalem also called for protests on Monday in solidarity with the Sheikh Jarrah families.
On the eve of the court ruling, Palestinian Authority Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Fadi al-Hidmi, warned that any decision to evict the Palestinian families “would bring matters back to square one.”
The case of the Sheikh Jarrah families has reached “a critical and dangerous situation that requires urgent intervention by the international community, to prevent matters from returning to square one,” Hidmi cautioned.
He accused the Israeli government of presenting the case as a dispute over real estate and claimed that what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah is “a political issue par excellence.”
The Israeli government’s attempts to show that this is a legal dispute over real estate “will not deceive anyone,” Hidmi said. “The whole world knows that the issue is political, and that what is happening is an attempt to replace the original owners of the land with settlers.”
The PA official said that the Palestinians do not trust the Israeli courts which, he claimed, “serve as an executive tool” that works for the benefit of the Israeli government and settlers.
“The international community, especially the US, the European Union and the United Nations, must be firm in rejecting the displacement plans,” Hidmi continued. “We do not rely on the Israeli courts, and we believe that only firm and decisive international intervention can force the Israeli government to reverse its decisions. Any decision to evict families from their homes will bring matters back to square one and undermine all international efforts that have been made in the past months.”