OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)
The Israeli high court of justice approved on Monday the appropriation of several dunums of Palestinian-owned land containing three houses in the southeast of Occupied Jerusalem following a 20-year legal battle.
Samih Darwish, the landowner, told WAFA news agency that the Israeli high court rejected the appeal he filed against the decision to seize his land and three houses and issued a verdict without holding a hearing giving the green light for the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) to take over his property.
Darwish explained the Israeli court’s five-page verdict authorized an Israeli plan to seize over 14 dunums of his land and three inhabited houses built over area of 400 square meters.
He added that 30 individuals of his family live in these three homes and are at risk of being evicted from them at any moment.
He affirmed that the IOA plans to destroy his homes and build roads and two apartment buildings for Jewish settlers on his land, pointing out that his land is located close to the illegal settlement of Gilo in the southwest of east Jerusalem.
According to the landowner, the total area of his own land had been 242 dunums before the IOA seized most of them in 1970 and left only 14 and a half dunums for his family, which was appropriated on Monday following the court’s decision.
The Israeli court also ordered the landowner to pay 20,000 shekels ($5,500) because he refused to comply with the decision ordering his family to leave the land and homes.
