Israel freezes Palestinian evictions in East Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel's supreme court on Tuesday froze the forced displacement of four Palestinian families from the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where Jewish settler groups have sought to seize control.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel, wrote the families would be recognised as protected tenants, and would pay a Jewish settler group a symbolic annual rent of 2,400 shekels [about $740] "until a determination of ... land rights".

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, which Palestinians envision as their future capital, following the June War of 1967, a move not recognised by most of the international community.

Sheikh Jarrah has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israeli control of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian families had been seeking a right to appeal a lower court decision that Jewish settlers owned the land.

In Tuesday’s ruling, two of the three judges granted that right to appeal.

Tuesday’s decision was part of a years-long legal battle waged by Palestinian families, resisting efforts by Jewish Israeli organisations to reclaim property owned by Jews in occupied East Jerusalem prior to Israel’s founding in 1948.

Jewish groups claimed the property shortly after, using an Israeli law that allows Jews, but not Palestinians, to recover Jerusalem property lost in the 1948 war to create Israel.

More than 200,000 settlers now live in occupied East Jerusalem, alongside about 300,000 Palestinians. The Jewish settlements there are considered illegal under international law.