Sheikh Jarrah Resident Facing Jail And Eviction

Sheikh Jarrah Resident Facing Jail And Eviction

Sunday, 17th of May, 3pm: Maher Hannoun, a resident of occupied East Jerusalem facing house eviction from the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, was ordered by an Israeli court to turn over the keys to his house by the 19th of July 2009, or face a 50,000 dollar fine and a prison sentence of an unspecified length.

Additionally, Maher was ordered to pay 5,000 shekels in court costs after appearing at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem after being charged with contempt of court to refusing to voluntarily leave his home.

For more information on the case, you are invited to a press conference with the families and their lawyer Mr. Hattem Abu Ahmad in the Sheikh Jarrah protest tent on Tuesday, 19 May 2009 at 11:00.

Maher has already served three months in an Israeli prison in 2008 for the same offense.

The Hannoun family residence, along with another household in Sheikh Jarrah belonging to the Ghawe family, were served eviction orders by Israeli authorities in March 2008. Israeli settlers have falsified documents to claim that the properties belong to them, even though the residences were built and given to the Hannoun and Ghawe families in 1956 as part of a joint plan from UNWRA and the Jordanian to house Palestinian refugees, 11 years before Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

25 other residences in Sheikh Jarrah also face eviction. In November 2008, Israeli authorities evicted the al-Kurd family from their home in the neighborhood despite widespread condemnation by the foreign diplomats and human rights workers.

International solidarity activists have been staying with both the Hannoun and Ghawe families in Sheikh Jarrah since the eviction orders were issued, and they will continue to stand with neighborhood residences against the orders.

“The Israeli court is trying to push us and take me to jail. The court should have ruled with justice and recognized the settler’s ownership papers as false. All the residents here are paying the price, as we will later become homeless. But as refugees, we have no where else to go. I was born in this house, as were my children. The Israelis want to build a new settlement on my land, on my hopes and dreams. All we are asking for is to live a normal life.” -Maher Hannoun, Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah facing house eviction

ENDS

© Scoop Media