Ateret Cohanim settler organization on Sunday handed Ouda family in Silwan town a judicial order to evacuate their residential building in Batn al-Hawa neighborhood south of al-Aqsa Mosque.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan said that Ateret Cohanim claims that the land on which Ouda’s building is built had been owned by Jews before 1889.
Ya’coub al-Rajabi member of the Batn al-Hawa families committee told Wadi Hilweh Information Center that Ouda family were ordered to give up a land where their four-storey building which is inhabited by 50 people is built.
Al-Rajabi said that the settler organization said the family has to respond to the lawsuit within 30 days adding that the committee will seek the help of a competent Lawyer to prove the family’s ownership of the land.
He explained that this land has been owned by Ouda family since the 1970s after they purchased it from a resident of Silwan who had owned it since the 1950s. Years ago Ouda family were able to obtain the necessary Israeli permits to establish the building which they have been living in for over 20 years.
The targeted land is part of a plan by Ateret Cohanim to confiscate 5 dunums and 200 square meters in the neighborhood for settlement purposes. Since September 2015 around 70 Palestinian families in the neighborhood have been handed evacuation orders by the same organization.
